PANJIM: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who has been ailing for well over a week, is known to be workaholic, handling over 20 portfolios, and his current illness has only ensured that his workload mounts every day.
Stitching together an alliance with smaller parties, Parrikar managed to form the government and distributed some important portfolios to the coalition partners but kept for himself some major and controversial ones.
He currently holds 21 portfolios which include – Home, Finance, Personnel, Vigilance, General Administration, Education, Mines and Geology, Industries and Commerce, Commercial Taxes, Science, Technology and Environment, Forests, State Election Commission, Goa Public Service Commission, Fire and Emergency, Co-operation, Civil Aviation, Information n Publicity and Official Language.
After his surprise return from Mumbai’s Lilavati hospital, the Chief Minister continued with his work clearing files from his Dona Paula residence, where he stayed with his family.
The CM is currently admitted in Goa Medical College and Hospital after he complained of dehydration on Sunday evening.
Inquiries revealed that due to the Chief Minister’s current medical condition he would have mountains of work to clear once he gets back to office.
“The Chief Minister works tirelessly, he starts early morning and finishes late night and has capacity to clear dozens and dozens of files in a day,” said an officer requesting anonymity.
Another officer said that the CM does not like to keep any work pending he clears files as they come. “His capacity to take the workload is unmatchable, he holds meetings and at every break he looks and clears files, be it in the car, house or office,” the bureaucrat said.
With so many portfolios, the Chief Minister gets hundreds of files everyday for clearance and barring the last few days there have never been files pending.
MGP’s Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar was given charge of the government in the absence of chief minister, when he was admitted in Mumbai. However, the move does not seem to have gone well with the alliance partners, and the Chief Minister returned to present budget, sources said.
