Citizens allege favouritism in works, Vigilance inaction
PANAJI
Public Works Department (PWD) Principal Chief Engineer (PCE) Uttam Parsekar has landed in further legal trouble, with a fresh petition filed before the High Court of Bombay at Goa accusing him of favouritism in awarding tenders. The petition claims this caused a loss of around Rs 1,350 crore to the State exchequer.
Filed by a group of citizens on Thursday, the petition alleges that both tendered and untendered PWD works were awarded to Parsekar’s relatives and a group of preferred contractors. It also claims that payments were released despite serious irregularities. Parsekar, the Vigilance Department and other authorities have been named as respondents.
The petitioners have accused the Vigilance Department of inaction, stating that despite a detailed complaint submitted in January 2025, no proper inquiry was carried out. According to the plea, the only step taken was issuing a memo to Parsekar seeking his explanation, after which the matter was allowed to lapse.
The petition seeks urgent intervention from the High Court and asks it to direct the Vigilance Department to conduct an impartial probe against Parsekar. The matter is likely to be mentioned before the High Court on Monday.
This petition comes soon after another plea filed by nearly 16 PWD engineers challenging the government’s decision to grant Parsekar three successive service extensions, allowing him to continue in office for almost three years after retirement. The engineers have alleged abuse of discretion by the government and said the latest extension, granted till January 31, 2026, had no exceptional justification.
They have also argued that the extensions violated a High Court judgment dated October 14, 2025, which directed the State to avoid extending the tenure of retiring officers and instead bring in younger officers by amending recruitment rules or eligibility norms if needed. Parsekar is due to retire on January 31, with the hearing in the first petition scheduled next week.
