the goan I network
PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant led Goa cabinet on Friday withdrew its consent to Senior Counsel Atmaram Nadkarni representing the State in all cases where it is a party in the Supreme Court, National Green Tribunal and other tribunals.
Nadkarni’s discontinuation as Goa’s standing counsel in the Supreme Court, the NGT and other tribunals was effected at cabinet meeting held on Friday.
The cabinet resolution said it had approved the proposal to withdraw the cabinet decision of December 28, 2017 in which Nadkarni was assigned to appear for the State as Senior Advocate in all matters before the Supreme Court, National Green Tribunal, New Delhi and any other Tribunals where Goa is a party.
Accordingly, the existing and future cases will be assigned to advocates by the Chief Minister or the Advocate General of Goa Devidas Pangam on a case to case basis, the resolution approved by Cabinet said.
Nadkarni, who is currently Additional Solicitor General and represents the Centre assigned by the Law Ministry before the Supreme Court, was formerly Advocate General of Goa concurrent with the terms late Manohar Parrikar’s stints as Chief Minister since 2000 and up until the latter moved to Delhi as Defence Minister in 2014.
He first became Advocate General of Goa in 1999, when current South Goa MP, Francisco Sardinha headed a coalition government with the BJP.
Recently, he had represented Goa’s case both before the Supreme Court as well as the tribunal on the Mhadei water sharing dispute between Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra. The State government had also retained him to represent it in all mining related matters.
In other decisions at Friday’s meeting, the first since Sawant effected a major reshuffle following defection of 10 Congress MLAs into the BJP, the Cabinet modified the pay scale of Head Constables (Armed Police) to bring it on par with pay scales of other Head Constables.
Transfer of 1,300 square
meters of the old Primary Health Centre at Tisk-Ponda from the Health to the Art and Culture department, for a multi-storied building in which 500 square metres on the ground floor wil be allocated for a PHC was another significant decision taken by the Cabinet on Friday.
In yet another major decision, the Cabinet resolved to engage NIO to monitor riverine and riparian biodiversity on sampling mode. NIO will carry out assessment studies for sand accretion/replenishment and erosion studies, assessment of biodiversity index for rivers for Rs 9.94 crore, the cabinet resolution said.
An expenditure of Rs 26.88 lakhs through the State Pollution Control Board to get an action plan for the 11 polluted river stretches prepared by empanelled consultants and to monitor river quality in these polluted river stretches was also approved. Pay scale of Head Constables (Armed Police) to be modified to bring it on par with pay scales of other Head Constables
Transfer of 1,300 square meters of the old Primary Health Centre at Tisk-Ponda from the Health to Art & Culture department
NIO to carry out assessment studies for sand accretion/replenishment and erosion, assessment of biodiversity index for rivers
An expenditure of Rs 26.88 lakhs through the State Pollution Control Board to get an action plan for the 11 polluted river stretches
