Srinet Kotwale’s stint in Margao as the Chief Officer of theMMC, and his increasing popularity with its people, was too good to last. Andit didn’t. On Tuesday, the Goa Municipal Employees Association, “rejected”Kotwale’s decision to implement the bio metric finger scanning attendancesystem and on Wednesday, Kotwale was transferred. In another twist he was askednot to hand over charge till Monday. Margao hopes that this is one transferthat gets revoked.
The two may not be related, but the timing of his transfercouldn’t have been worse. For those who treat a civic body “ and that includesvirtually every employee “ as a parking space and others as a platform forpolitics, Kotwale’s brand of administration is anathema. He brought indiscipline, demanded attendance on time, went by the rules and court decisions,like demolishing illegal structures in the migrant-filled Moti Dongor, andabove all kept Margao first. Much like one of his predecessors, PrasannaAcharya, who was handpicked by Parrikar to be the Mines Director at the heightof the mining crisis.
Naturally, Kotwale made few friends in the corridors of MMC,but won the hearts of the common Madgaonkar, witness to the fast paced decay oftheir once gorgeous Margao, into an unrecognisable debris of its past grandeur.He picked issues that Margao needed to be addressed the most “ Parking,encroachments and work discipline. But he got just five months and wastransferred just as he was about to oversee the demolition of illegalstructures in Moti Dongor, the reason for Digambar Kamat’s continuance as anMLA.
Good officers in Margao face two problems. The first frompoliticians who are stakeholders and beneficiaries of many of theirregularities and from MMC’s own employees who reject any system change viaman or machine, which breaks the cozy unaccounted for humdrum of their so-calledworking lives. Their objection to a bio metric scanner reader was that a PIL toimplement a system is still pending. This is absurd because there is nodirection from any court not to have attendance scanners. In fact the courtshall actually be pleased. But obviously, this is just an excuse from theMunicipal Employees Association.
Kotwale’s transfer can’t be justified. Twelve Chief Officersin seven years is a sign that the political establishment doesn’t want anyofficer to settle down. Margao is Goa’s flagship town. Its chief officersshould not only be given a free run but officers like Kotwale should beshowcased, not shunted.
