TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The heat and dust over the appointment of ombudsman will hopefully be settled with the swearing in of Lokayukta on March 16, after the Cabinet gave its final approval Wednesday.
Cabinet, also cleared the State Litigation Policy as well as appointments of ‘election cells’, mamlatdars and ‘aka’ in both North and South Collectorates, the chief minister said.
Election cells will take care of all election-related work, while the appointments of Mamlatdars ~ six in North and eight in South, with one aka each along with supporting staff, 128 in all, will see that law and order and mutations and such cases are handled by dedicated officers.
“We find that there are problems faced in handling law and order as well as hearing cases like on mutation matters…,” Parrikar said, “So we decided to divide the work.”
On the appointment of the Lokayukta, he said that the final approval had to be taken as there was a minor spelling mistake in the name of the Lokayukta, informing that he would be sworn in on March 16 after which he would take over, albeit in a temporary office. The permanent office of Lokayukta at the old government hospital at Ribandar will be readied as per his specifications.
“It may require between one to three months to get everything ready, including recruiting his staff,” the chief minister said during his cabinet briefing, adding that some 36 staff had been sanctioned including a DySP level police officer.
“Right now his temporary office will be located at the old HRD corporation office and he will be sworn in at the Raj Bhavan,” the chief minister informed, saying that all posts had been created.
“He can take any government servant he wants by circulating a note or appoint any person, but the first preference would be (recruiting staff on) deputation,” Parrikar said.
The chief minister said that he had not short listed anybody, saying, “If he (Lokayukta) shortlists, it is still better.”
Speaking on the new litigation policy, the chief minister said that the policy was based on “One policy, and that is that the government wants to reduce litigation.”
“I have given the general policy of the government. It is not in favour of filing ‘small small’ cases. We have to take district levels (referring to the district courts) seriously,” the chief minister said, adding that it was as per the “National Litigation Policy.”
