After being sworn in as Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’sfirst promise to the packed crowd at SAG Ground Campal on March 9 was that hisGovernment would have zero tolerance to corruption. Coming on the background ofthe defeat of the previous Congress Government that had institutionalizedcorruption, Goa had looked forward to people being booked from the previousregime including Ministers and Senior Officials of PWD, Industry, Mining,Health, Power and even Home Department. Till date not a single person has beenidentified and booked by Parrikar’s government. On Independence Day, herescheduled the deadline and rejigged the phraseology by saying “"I havepurposely not been saying zero corruption. But the level of tolerance towardscorruption should be zero, so corruption will come to a negligible level."It was Parrikar, who as Leader of the Opposition had exposed corruption scamsin Excise and Health, indicted the ChiefMinister Digambar Kamat directly for his role in iolegla mining, in his PACreport and had attacked corruption in PWD, Urban Development, Home and IndustryDepartment. The only achievement is a single FIR that registered till date byAnti Corruption Bureau of Vigilance Department on August 18 and that tooagainst “unknown persons” on the allotment of plots for the now scrapped SEZs.
Known abettors andperpetuators of corruptions go scot free. The CM’s defence “People ask me why Iam not suspending some of the officers although they were proved to be corrupt.I can't do that because I am already facing shortage of officers. There are somany of them who are yet to be promoted and so many vacancies not filled.”
