the goan I network
PANAJI
Ailing Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar chaired a cabinet meeting at his private residence at Dona Paula on Thursday evening in which the mining imbroglio dominated discussions and a consensus emerging to continue to root for a ‘legislative cure’ to circumvent the Supreme Court judgement and resume operations.
Emerging out of the nearly three-hour-long meeting, Power Minister Nilesh Cabral said the Cabinet is hopeful of a solution soon.
“We will be going to Delhi in the next 3-4 days. We will come back to you with details of the solution to the mining issue then,” Cabral told waiting journalists outside Parrikar’s residence at Dona Paula.
Another issue discussed and resolved at the cabinet meeting on Thursday was the question of kick-starting the process of recruitment for filling up some 2900-odd vacancies in ‘Group C’ posts in various government departments.
Cabral said, the cabinet has approved the decentralisation of the recruitment process with each department handling the task by itself instead of the earlier norm which required it to be handled centrally by the Personnel Department.
The notification decentralising government recruitment will be issued in the next couple of days and the actual process of calling for applications through advertisements is expected to start latest by January 10 next year, Cabral said.
Government recruitment is an issue which has been hanging fire for over a year after the Parrikar-led government had formed the High Level Empowered
Committee of bureaucrats to first rationalise the sanctioned staff strength of various departments and fix the number of vacancies available.
Thus far, the committee has completed the exercise for most of the departments, and has approved nearly 2900-odd vacancies in several departments. The government is anxious to speed up the recruitment process from here on as it desires to beat the restrictions that would come into play with the Code of Conduct coming into force for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections due in the first half of 2019.
Meanwhile, Parrikar has given instructions to the concerned officers to resolve the bottle-necks in the path of resumption of sand mining. Govind Gaude said sand mining has been banned in Goa by the Bombay High Court which is hearing a matter related to unregulated and illegal extraction of sand from the beds of several rivers in the State. The ban has severely affected prices and availability of the crucial raw material for the construction industry.
Among other issues, the Thursday’s cabinet meeting also dealt with matters related to the friction between ministers and bureaucrats which in the recent past were voiced in the open by ministers themselves.
Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai, who was among those who had raised the issue of an unresponsive bureaucracy said: “The differences between ministers and bureaucrats has been sorted out by the chief minister.”
Assembly session from Jan 9
PANAJI: The State Cabinet on Thursday decided to recommend to the Speaker Pramod Sawant to convene a session of the Goa legislative assembly from January 29.
Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai said the cabinet approved the decision on Thursday. He however did not say how long the session would be.
It is a Constitutional requirement that the Assembly convenes before February 2 as the legislature was last adjourned sine die on August 2. The interval between two sessions of the Assembly cannot exceed six months, the Constitution mandates.
