PANAJI
Several ministers on Monday formally took guard at the State Secretariat on and pledged to keep public service paramount in their functioning.
Revenue minister Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate, was among the first to formally move in to the ministerial block at the Secretariat.
Speaking to the media, he reiterated that his top priority would be to ensure expeditious disposal of the thousands of cases under the mundkarial and tenancy laws pending for several decades in revenue courts.
Monserrate, who holds the Revenue portfolio also said, that all offices in the Collectorates and taluka headquarters will be made extremely people-friendly.
"Mudkarial cases have been lingering on for years together now. We need to bring in changes in the revenue department for speedy disposal of these cases, in a time bound manner,” Monserrate told journalists.
Quoting the famed 'tarik pe tarik' dialogue of a Bollywood flick, Monserrate said such a situation in the Revenue Courts will be done away with.
Functioning in the offices of mamlatdars and deputy collectors will also be reformed to ensure responsiveness to people's needs, Monserrate said.
Apart from Revenue, Monserrate has also been allocated the Waste Management department and Labour & Employment.
Another minister who took charge on Monday was Govind Gaude, who has retained the Art and Culture portfolio he held in the previous term and has also been allocated Sports and Youth Affairs.
Gaude interacted with middle and top-level officials in the Sports department where he rued that the allocations made for sports in the recently presented budget was far below requirements.
'I feel that the funds allocated in the budget is very less. Sports has been neglected in Goa," Gaude said while interacting with the officials and added that it must be ensured that Goan Sports is taken to a greater height within the next three years.
On the controversial question of Goa hosting the National Games, Gaude said the State was still not fully prepared.
"Goa is not ready for National Games," Gaude said, adding that he will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Sports Minister to discuss his ideas and ensure preparations for the Games are in place.
The last edition of the National Games was held in Jharkhand in 2011 and the Goa edition initially slated to be conducted in November 2016 has been rescheduled multiple times largely due to non-completion of some of the infrastructure.
October 2021 was the last scheduled date for the Games but then they were indefinitely postponed due to the pandemic.
