Appeals under various Acts including Municipalities, Panchayat, Excise and others are heard by officers at the Secretariat in Porvorim. But with the entire bureaucracy led by the Chief Secretary having surrendered to the political class, it would be in the interest of justice that these appeals be decided by a judicial authority. It is a rank miscarriage of justice if appeals are heard by officials who are caged parrots of the politicians. Gone are the days when IAS officers would stand up against wrong diktats by politicians. Today sadly they are ready to even crawl around the politicians whose puppets they have chosen to be for varied reasons. The sad state of our bureaucracy is a matter of concern, with their loyalty to the politicians and not to the rule of law. Over the decades we have seen outstanding IAS, IPS, IFS and IRS officers serve in Goa with a solemn duty to the State. They dared to put dissenting notes on proposals and projects that there were against the State. They acted as guardians and custodians of the rule of law.
