PANAJI
In perhaps a first, as many as four officers from the set of 14 Indian Administrative Services (IAS) bureaucrats posted as Secretaries are home grown locals -- Sandeep Jacques, Menino D'Souza, Sanjit Rodrigues and Sanjiv Gadkar -- more than three and half decades after Goa attained Statehood.
While Jacques has been appointed Secretary of the crucial General Administration Department with charge of another important department of revenue besides law, judiciary and labour, D'Souza is the Secretary for Panchayats, Rural Development among others.
Rodrigues is the Secretary (Housing) which Gadkar has been appointed Special Secretary (Home and Personnel) besides being made member-secretary of the Goa Staff Selection Commission.
Former chief minister Digambar Kamat welcomed the fact that four Goans are among the IAS secretaries to the Goa government.
"It is good. Good for the administration and good for the people of Goa as they know the peculiarity of the Goa situation. It will help," Kamat said when asked to comment.
Hitherto, IAS officers posted to Goa have usually been from outside the State barring a rare exception as in the case of Mihir Vardhan and PS Reddy, who both served as Secretaries to the government of Goa on promotion and absorption into the IAS cadre after long stints as Grade I Goa civil service officers.
In past politician-bureaucrat confrontations in Goa, one constant point of contention voiced by local politicians is that the IAS officers are a hindrance to smooth administration as they lack knowledge of local Goan realities and nuances.
On occasions in the past the politician-bureaucrats confrontation reached such a threshold, that it prompted at least two former chief ministers -- Luizinho Faleiro and Manohar Parrikar -- to set the ball rolling for Goa to break away from the MHA-controlled AGMUT cadre and set up one of its own.
On both occasions, the moves were stonewalled by the Centre and aborted.
Kamat, who was chief minister of Goa for a whole five-year term between 2007 and 2012, said he had pursued the proposal to set up a State IAS cadre during his term but gave it up as the realities of having an independent cadre for such a small State were proving to be imprudent.
"We would need a cadre of a maximum strength of 20. In that scenario, the MHA pointed out that it would be too difficult to manage it as officers would have no scope for lateral and upward movement and the cadre would stagnate," the former chief minister said.
Interestingly, all the four Goan officiers -- Jacques, D'Souza, Rodrigues and Gadkar -- are promotees to the IAS cadre who rose from the Goa civil services ranks and not direct cadre officers who have cracked the All India Civil Services examination.
Considered one of the toughest competitive exam, that Goa's youth are loathe to take the competitive examination is a common lament of academicians, career coaches and politicians.
However, governments in Goa have put in little effort, if any, to set up infrastructure and training modules to either create awareness among youth or train them to take the exam.
Over a decade ago Pernem lad Ashutosh Teli, became the first Goa-bred student to crack the exam drawing praise and accolades from many. Teli, son of former senior police officer, Appa Teli, is part of the Rajasthan IAS cadre where he currently works at a senior bureaucratic level.
Other better known Goan IAS officers include Goa's first chief secretary the late Dr J C Almeida and former MPT Chairman, Arvind Bhatikar.
