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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, Jan 10: The Congress government in Goa has asked the Union Home Ministry to stop imposing its bureaucrats on it and respect the fact that Goa is now a full-fledged state and not a Union Territory.
Surprising many, including a few in the Congress circles here, Chief Minister Lousinho Faleiro early this week dispatched a protest letter to Home Minister L.K. Advani. It alleged that attempts to “sideline” the Goa Government on appointments and transfers of senior officials in the state had of late become quite brazen.
Advani’s attention has been drawn to the recent appointment of R.S. Sahai as the Director General of the Goa Police. Before that, his ministry had decided to transfer Goa’s Inspector General of Police P.R.S. Brar to Arunachal Pradesh.
The twin decisions seem to have come as the last straw for Faleiro, and his main grudge is that New Delhi did not consult the state government before taking such steps. And in this case, Advani is told, IG Brar was doing a fine job and should nothave been moved out.
Goa, points out Faleiro to Advani, has an administration of its own. The problem, however, is that unlike other states, Goa does not have a civil services cadre and comes under the UT cadre — thus making it entirely dependent on the Cente for important postings.
Faleiro has suggested an alternative. The Home Ministry could form a panel of candidates who would also be considered by the state.Unfortunately, he has told Advani, senior bureaucrats in Delhi often take arbitrary decisions.
Interestingly, charges of “arbitrary appointments and transfers” find an echo in New Delhi. R.S. Sahai (appointed the Goa DG), is among the six senior IPS officers, all joint commissioners, who have been recently elevated as additional commissioners. The other five are Ajay Aggarwal, R.K. Sharma, S. Ramakrishnan, R.S. Gupta and Suresh Rai. But of these six, only two — Sahai and Suresh Rai — have been transferred out of Delhi.Rai is believed to have expressed to the Home Ministry his reluctance tobe shunted out at this juncture.
Both he and Sahai had rejoined the Delhi Police only a few months ago after serving several years in other states.
It may be significantly recalled that even in the past Goa has protested over Centre’s undue interference in its administrative affairs.
Former chief minister Pratapsinh Rane has also been one to protest about certain arbitrary decisions which the Centre took on a number of occasions. The Goa bureaucracy is in fact very sensitive about the way bureaucrats are shuffled around to suit the requirements of the Central Govt.
