With the elections on 23 October 2005 to the Municipal Council process underway, the Code of Conduct has come into force. However according to reports recieved by this writer, there has been hectic activity at all the Municipal Councils.
Files are being dispossed of by respective councillors demanding out of turn clearance, to appease the Builders and other citizens with connivance of the Municipal Engineers and Chief Officers. There are reports that the Minister for Municipal Administrations himself directs the bureaucrats to clear the same. Despite the ban on recruitment the over 600 vacancies of conservancy staff are being filled in on recommendations of the Municipal Councillors or others in the garb of daily wages. Though it is necessary to give breaks in service each councillor tries to protect his her favourite and then demand for regularisation on compassionate grounds or otherwise, since money has changed hands at the time of placement. The irony of the racket is that non-goans tend to benefit. Therefore the entire list of such incumbents should be called for and only Goans be preferred first and later non goans who fulfill the 15 year domicile.There are instances where staff have retired and engaged on daily wages, Not all those on the Nominal Muster rolls attend to jobs relating to the Municipality concerned but many attend to personal jobs of the Councillors staff or "delegate" - subcontract jobs to others at lower rates while they collect the remunnerations and pay a lesser amount to their proxy. This writer has seen a number of such workers discharging duties at the SGPDA fish market when they ought to be on the rolls of the Margao Municipal Council. Incidentally since the new Right to Information act will come into force on 12th October 2005 several NGOs are up in arms to call for the names of daily wage earners recruited by the Municipalities from State Information Officers under the Act to expose the illegal acts of Councillors. When this writer visited a Municipal Council it was clear that atleast six vacancies were being cleared on explicit orders of a top politician after the Code of Conduct came into force. In view of this the Director of Municipal Administration Mr D A Havaldar has been impleaded upon to issue directions to the CO's not to clear files or make recruitments and if the same has been done after the code came into force the "stop payment " orders be issued. Meanwhile, if the Councils are dissolved the CO's could become Administrators and clear the files at the same time pruning their departments well in time before the next batch of councillors take office on 24 October 2005 for another 5 year term. The State Chief Election Officer should also not the same and take immediate action. With the dissolution of the Corporation of City of Panaji ordinance to come into force tommorow after the signature of the Governor is obtained, dissolving the 11 Municipal councils too would be in order. GODFREY J I GONSALVES Borda Margao Goa [EMAIL PROTECTED]