For Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, life between February 4 and March 11 will be one of suspended animation. He is suspended between being in power (albeit technically) and possibly being out of power as Chief Minister, even if BJP forms the next government. But he has unfinished business and we are not talking about winning the Mandrem seat.
After his month-long gruelling campaign in Mandrem constituency, he had to clear heaps of files. When Herald went to meet him at his bungalow, the chief minister was buried in his files.
“I had instructed the officers to clear the files at the Director or Secretary level and asked them not to send the files to me unless it’s urgently required,” the chief minister said. “But the number of files as you can see is huge. I have to clear them now,” said Parsekar.
While projects of utmost importance were cleared before the code came into place, his hands are now tied. The Seventh Pay Commission implementation and laying of the foundation stone for 4/6 laning of national highway by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari were done before the code came into being. And way back in November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for BJP’s ambitious Mopa Greenfield International Airport.
Then bottom line is clear: If it has started, it must continue. It’s like being given a boarding pass to board a flight. No one can deny boarding if a boarding pass has been issued (rare exceptions not included). At the same time new projects and even those whose work orders were issued before the code, but whose work had not commenced, could not be taken up as per Code guidelines.
While routine administrative works continued from January 4, the government was not able to keep the pace of already commenced developmental works due to delay in release of funds.
But as far as public was concerned, the beneficiaries of the ongoing social security schemes like DSSS, Griha Adhar, Laadli Laxmi, Deen Dayal Swasthya Seva Yojana, which were sanctioned in the past, continued to get financial assistance while putting on hold clearance of new applications. Over 65,000 government employees also enjoyed the benefit of VII Pay Commission from January 1.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has refrained the Chief Minister and Ministers from hearing appeals filed by the citizens under various prevailing laws and Acts in the State until the ongoing poll process is completed. Moreover, several MLAs, who were heading Corporations and autonomous bodies, have resigned from their respective positions in a bid to contest the elections. This includes financial institutions like Economic Development Corporation; infrastructure body, Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation; industrial body, Goa State Industrial Development Corporation; transport, Kadamba Transport Corporation, Horticulture Corporation, SC and ST Corporation; planning body, North and South Goa Planning and Development Authorities, etc.
“The poll code of conduct does not affect the routine administrative work. Expenses can be incurred. The only thing is that no policy decision and new projects or schemes are taken up,” said CEO IAS Kunal.
The State government, which was expecting the things to return to normalcy after the elections, is currently sandwiched between the election date and the counting day.
Parsekar confirmed that the Election Code of Conduct still prevails over the state making it impossible to take new decisions. “When the fate of government is sealed it is not right on my part to take any policy decision,” he said.
The Government is looking at ECI with a hope to relax the code of conduct; considering the fact that the State will go for Panchayat polls in mid-May. This will again bring in a month-long code from April. Laadli, Griha Adhar &DSS applications won’t be processed.
Sources at the secretariat confirmed that while new infrastructure projects can wait, the current situation is going to plague the new applications for social welfare schemes like Laadli Laxmi, Griha Adhar and DSS which arrive in thousands every month. “The new Government will be flooded with the backlog of these applications which will require immediate attention and also source to fund them,” sources said.
