MARGAO
Margao Municipal Council’s Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meeting scheduled on Monday has come into focus of the employees as well as the Powers that be.
For, the meeting called by the Director of Municipal Administration (DMA) on Monday morning will decide whether the civic body will finally fill up the post of Head Clerk lying vacant for the last year and a half and whether the post would go to a candidate belonging to the Scheduled Tribe community.
Consider this. The DPC meet held on April 28, 2022, mysteriously decided not to fill up the vacant post even though the panel had promoted two civic employees to the post of market inspectors.
Against this backdrop, questions are being raised about whether the meeting will take place to fill up the post.
Why the head clerk posts have not been filled up since the time it became vacant on May 31, 2021, after the retirement of Priya Naik remains a mystery, more so when the tribal welfare department had put up a note on the reservation roaster to fill up the post on priority and clear the backlog in respect of the ST community.
Sources pointed out that of the two head clerk posts, one was not filled up after Mohan T Arlekar had retired on January 31, 2016, before the post got lapsed.
Officials feared that a similar fate may fall on the second post of the head clerk as well if the same is not filled up at the earliest.
A group of City Fathers had strongly batted for the filling up of the vacant post, prompting the outgoing Chief Officer to send correspondence to the office of the Director of Municipal Administration (DMA). “We have told the Chief Officer that no person eligible for promotion to the post of head clerk should be denied the opportunity,” informed a ruling BJP-backed councillor.
