AERIAL VIEW
So the blame is directly on the Director of Civil Supplies. In no way would a minister shoulder the responsibility.
The question now arises is why the Director would not dispose off or distribute the dal and sugar to people despite Minister and CM’s orders. Do not see any officer in Goa till date who has the spine to ignore the orders of the ministers or CM. If the Director has done so, it is criminal negligence, and he needs to be punished and jailed.
If the Director is innocent and honest, he must reveal the names of the people or politicians who asked him not to dispose off the foodgrains.
This is not the first time the bureaucrats have been blamed for the illegalities of the politicians; it has happened several times in Goa.
Tonnes of foodgrains have been damaged in the State government godowns. Around 200 tonnes of Tur dar and a similar quantity of sugar have been damaged in the last two years, and the Department of Civil Supplies has called for a tender to dispose off the damaged material.
We have already spoken at length about the inhuman attitude of this government as even as the people struggled to get the food grains during lockdowns, the government preferred the foodgrains to rot rather than distributing them same in the godowns.
The question now arises is who is responsible for the mess; the then Civil Supplies Minister Govind Gaude has washed off his hands on the issue, saying he had asked the Director of Civil Supplies to dispose off the dal and sugar in January 2021, and even the CM Dr Pramod Sawant had signed on the file.
So the blame is directly on the Director of Civil Supplies. In no way would a minister shoulder the responsibility.
The question now arises is why the Director would not dispose off or distribute the dal and sugar to people despite Minister and CM’s orders. Do not see any officer in Goa till date who has the spine to ignore the orders of the ministers or CM. If the Director has done so, it is criminal negligence, and he needs to be punished and jailed.
If the Director is innocent and honest, he must reveal the names of the people or politicians who asked him not to dispose off the foodgrains.
This is not the first time the bureaucrats have been blamed for the illegalities of the politicians; it has happened several times in Goa.
The fitting example was former Principle Chief Engineer of PWD AM Wachasunder, who was caught in the Louis Berger fiasco.
In fact, the bureaucrats have become the puppets in the hands of politicians and whatever is told to them in, written or verbally, they follow blindly, without thinking of the consequences. Even in Tur dal case, there could have been verbal instructions and nothing on paper. But now the Director is responsible.
This happens because in our constitution politicians are powered to rule. Directions come from politicians e.g PM, CM, ministers. They are voted to power by the people to rule. They are here to “rule”. They are the master. They use tools like bureaucrats o achieve their goals.
A politician can slap an officer for “whatever” made-up reasons because they are master and protected by parliament and the people, but an officer can not slap back. If he does, he’ll be in big trouble. They know this and remain silent and work as per their master’s wish. So gradually, they become a puppet. But some of them are defiant and come out of the herd. Unfortunately, our people abandon them.
Unless we work hard, this system will never change. This is actually against the basic essence of democracy,