the goan I network
PANAJI
The Congress legislature party which met on Friday evening in the wake of aftermath of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s sudden departure for the United States has demanded that he disburden himself of the finance portfolio and allocate it to a Cabinet colleague to speed up financial sanctions and kick-start infrastructure and development works in all constituencies.
A number of Congress MLAs voiced concern that tender processes related to PWD works in their constituencies were stuck for lack of expenditure sanctions because the finance department is overlooked by Parrikar and movement of files has virtually stalled due to his absence.
CLP sources said, senior leaders opined that Parrikar should at least disburden himself of the finance portfolio and allocate it to any of his Cabinet colleagues so that files are cleared after financial sanction and the projects can be tendered and work can begin soon after monsoon.
All the big guns including former chief ministers Pratapsing Rane, Digambar Kamat, Luizinho Faleiro and Ravi Naik attended the meeting where it was decided that the MLAs and the party should take to the streets if Parrikar fails to either allocate the portfolio or devolve financial powers within a reasonable time of say one week.
“We have to exert some pressure. Work in our constituencies is suffering,” a CLP source said.
Meanwhile, Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginald Lourenco is said to have created a flutter in the meeting when he expressed his disgust with his colleagues for being timid and failing to take on the ruling coalition especially when it is tottering and in a state of limbo for long. At the fag end of the CLP meeting Lourenco, although he endorsed the CLP decision to adopt an aggressive agitational mode now, voiced his displeasure that the party had till date failed to take on the current dispensation’s directionless and lacklustre performance since February when Parrikar was first diagnosed with his serious pancreatic ailment.
Meanwhile, PWD Minister Sudin Dhavlikar on Friday sort to play down the impact of Parrikar’s departure on governance and the running of the State’s administration.
“The Chief Minister does not have much of a role in the day-to-day running of the administration. It is the chief secretary who oversees the day-to-day work and he is efficient,” Dhavlikar told the media outside Sanskruti Bhavan, the venue of the condolence meet for former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Dhavlikar said Parrikar’s absence will be felt and will affect governance only when the need arises for the
government to take major decision and on policy matters.
“The big policy decisions can be taken when he (Parrikar) returns which is expected to be in a week’s time,” he added.
The BJP on the other hand has ruled out any ‘alternative arrangement’. The party has been insisting that Parrikar is fine and will continue to lead the government from the US just as he did during his over three-month-long treatment between March and June this year.
