Awarding cabinet rank is normal practice, says Eduardo Faleiro HERALD NEWS DESK
PANJIM, JULY 25 Non Resident Affairs Department was created to look into the affairs of the Goan community overseas. And the department of Non Resident Affairs has been introducing many measures to ensure that the rights of Goan overseas are protected in Goa. And the work has been met with wide appreciation. Herald spoke to Commissioner of NRI Affairs Eduardo Faleiro over the sudden controversy over the designation. How was the post of Commissioner created? I read in the newspapers that my appointment as Commissioner for NRI Affairs has been challenged in the Courts. I did not seek any job either from Central Government or the State Government. After my retirement from the Rajya Sabha, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offered me some positions far senior than any position available in Goa but I could not accept them because I wanted to be based in Goa. When Chief Minister Rane requested me to take the job of Commissioner for NRI Affairs I accepted it because whilst being in Goa I could do some good for our people. When was this ministry and departments created? The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs was created about 5 years ago and NRI Departments at the State level are an even more recent creation. I am the only person in charge of such a Department in the whole country who has had previous experience of this subject. Indeed, before the creation of MOIA, NRI Affairs were a Department in the Ministry of External Affairs and I was in charge of that Department among others as minister for two terms. Why the designation of cabinet rank? As far as Cabinet rank is concerned it is a normal practice in India at the Union level as well as the level of State Governments to bestow cabinet rank on persons or offices which the Government of the day considers appropriate. This is also the practice in many other countries including UK and USA. Such persons are not part of the Council of Ministers. Who have been awarded these positions? Inder Kumar Gujral was our Ambassador to USSR with a cabinet minister rank in the seventies. Dr L M Singvi, as High Commissioner to the U K, Dr Karan Singh, as Ambassador to the USA in the eighties and nineties and many others held cabinet rank. Dr Karan Singh even now as Chairman of Auroville Foundation holds a cabinet minister rank. Our president Dr Abdul Kalam was the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India and was accorded the rank of a cabinet minister in 1999. Are these Ministers part of the council of Ministers? No, at present there is any number of persons both at the Central as well as State level, including in the neighbouring States of Maharashtra and Karnataka, who hold cabinet minister rank but are not part of the Council of Ministers. http://oheraldo.in/node/26845 Cip
