the goan I network
PANAJI
The term of the three-member Cabinet Advisory Committee has been extended by yet another month this time up to May 31.
In an internally circulated office memorandum, the Government has been informed that the “arrangements made for the transaction of business of the government… in his absence on medical grounds shall be continued for a further period wef May 1, to May 31 on the same terms.”
The memorandum was signed by the Chief Secretary Dharmendra Sharma.
The Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, had at the end of March, extended the tenure of the three member Cabinet Advisory Committee by another month to April 30, while increasing their power to take decisions on financial expenditure up to Rs 10 crore.
The power of individual ministers to clear files has also been hiked from Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore.
The Chief Minister was first hospitalised on February 14 for what was reported to be a case of food poisoning. However, no sooner he was shifted to Mumbai, the state administration informed that the Chief Minister would be “unavailable for next two days as he has to undergo a routine health check-up in Mumbai.”
On February 16, the State Administration informed that the Chief Minister “is well and under observation. He is likely to be discharged in a day or two. It is a case of mild pancreatitis.”
The next day, however, it was reported that the Chief Minister was “under monitoring for his inflamed pancreas” with the assumption that his treatment would be longer than initially anticipated the budget session was curtailed to only four days.
On February 23, barely a day after he defied odds and presented the state’s financial statement the same day he was discharged from Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital, the chief minister began summoning files from his office which were sanitized and presented to him.
However, by Sunday evening he had to be readmitted to hospital following this time with dehydration.
Parrikar himself admitted that he has been asked to avoid contact in view of a risk of infection as he recovers from his ailment.
When he was admitted, the Chief Minister’s office in a terse statement said the chief minister was admitted on account of “slight dehydration” and low blood pressure. On March 5, he was shifted to Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital and was flown to the USA the next day where he continues to remain.
