MAPUSA
If the transfer of seven officers from Margao civic body by the government was unprecedented, conversely, officials of the Mapusa civic body have remained stuck for over seven years in one place without any kind of bother.
Bhanudas Naik, who is presently functioning as the Administrative Officer in Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC), will be completing eight years next month in the civic body.
Similarly, Hussain Shah Muzawar has completed more than five years first as Municipal Engineer and now as Municipal Engineer 1.
Naik joined as Accounts Taxation Officer in MMC in November 2009, while Muzawar joined as municipal engineer in Mapusa in September 2012.
Around two years back, Naik was promoted as Administrative Officer, while Muzawar was promoted as Municipal Engineer 1.
Sources told The Goan that since MMC belongs to ‘B' class category, the civic body is not entitled to have both the posts that of Municipal Engineer 1 and the Administrative Officer.
There were attempts to acquire ‘A' class status for Mapusa Municipal Council just before the civic elections in 2015 but since the civic body could not fulfill certain parameters to obtain the status, the move was dropped.
So despite its ‘B' class status, Mapusa civic body boasts of two senior engineers - Municipal Engineer 1 and Municipal Engineer 2.
There are four junior engineers - Venkatesh Sawant (joined in March 2014), Sangeeta Satardekar (February 2014), Subhash Amonkar (August 2015) and Nadeem (2016) at the service of the civic body.
For the moment, JE Venkatesh Sawant has been given the charge of Municipal Engineer 2.
Surprisingly, besides the four JEs from the common cadre, Mapusa civic body has recruited two additional staff to assist the engineering department, sources informed.
Sources disclosed that Rajesh and Tukaram have been recruited to assist the junior engineers in the technical section. Each of them draw a salary of over Rs 20,000 a month from the municipal funds.
"Recruitment of additional staff in the engineering staff shows that the engineers are incompetent," said Jawaharlal Shetye, secretary of the Mapusa People's Union.
He further said a government which prides itself as having zero tolerance to corruption should ensure that officers do not remain too long in one place.
