Sandesh Prabhudesai
24 September 1999
At last, the three-month long controversy has been put to rest, but not the battle.
Seva Ram Sharma, who has been sent back to Delhi in the most humiliated manner, has paved way for Ashok Nath to take over as the new chief secretary.
But Sharma leaves behind a petition, filed before the Mumbai bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal, against the Goa government as well as the Government of India, seeking justice for the malafide intention behind his transfer.
Perhaps this is the reason Nath, the 56-year old bureaucrat, was rushed down to Goa by the Ministry of Home Affairs, which had earlier expressed its inability to send him down before 8 October.
Nath's tenure in Goa, at the fag end of his long-standing career, begins in a most excited manner which he had never done in his life before. Leaving everything in Delhi and the keys of his locked office in the pocket, he flew down to Goa.
Sharma, his batch-mate, is the cause. The former appears determined to fight the legal battle now against chief minister Luizinho Faleiro. The MHA officials were pressurised by Faleiro to get him transferred in an unprecedented manner, he alleges in the petition.
The chronological facts mentioned in the petition lists out the way he was being humiliated by the Goa government right from the time Faleiro took over as the chief minister once again on 9 June.
After giving all the details of how he was stripped of his major portfolios, orders issued to withdraw his office staff and even taking away his legal powers to write annual confidential reports of his subordinate officers, the petition then comes down to the crux of the matter.
The high drama begins when Faleiro arrives in Goa on 14 September with two victories – Sharma's transfer order after seeking permission from the Election Commission and the high command's permission to expand the cabinet in order to save his government.
Sharma plays his role as the CS in the official proceedings of the swearing-in ceremony in the afternoon the same day while the personnel department issues the order at night, relieving Sharma from 14th afternoon.
It follows another order the next day, stating that Ashok Kumar, the development commissioner, has taken over as the acting CS, from the 14th afternoon. The question – who was the CS when cabinet was expanded – remains unanswered.
Meanwhile, the state government receives another letter from Amitabh Kumar, deputy secretary of the MHA, stating that Sharma would hand over charge to Nath, based on which Sharma retaliates by issuing a fresh circular that the earlier circular stands null and void and thus should not be published.
In spite of that, the chief minister's office tries to get it published and Sharma seeks police protection for the printing and stationary director, who expresses helplessness in not publishing it as she is pressurised by the CMO to do so. The director, sitting at the CMO, tells the DGP that she is not under any pressure.
The circular gets published on 16 September, but not with retrospective effect from 14 September as planned earlier, but now from that day itself. It immediately follows withdrawing Sharma's official staff including the peon and even the driver.
Comes Saturday, when the MHA sends another letter, this time signed by additional secretary P D Shenoy, that Sharma would hand over charge to Kumar, the DC, as Nath could come down only on 8 October. It follows personnel department's circular, issued on a holiday, that no files would be sent to Sharma.
While the general administration even takes away Sharma's car using duplicate keys, the petition is then filed before the CAT in Mumbai on Monday, 20 September. It is now coming up for hearing on 27 September, where the state as well as the central government are the respondents.
Meanwhile, before getting to serious work here, Nath has to go back to Delhi to sort out his papers in the office of the principal home secretary of Delhi government, the post he had been handling for the last two and a half years and make the office available for the new incumbent.
He has perhaps not even met his wife, who is the editor of 'Discover India', before coming to Goa as he had to rush down while she was in Madras.
More than analysing who finally scored over whom, Nath's entry to Goa made it amply clear that Faleiro's actions in regard with Sharma was a plain revenge. "Don't worry, normalcy would be restored now", claims Nath.
No wonder, Nath was welcomed with a fresh circular issued yesterday itself, restoring chief secretary's powers to write annual confidential reports (ACR) of his subordinates. Handing all the portfolios back to him would be the next step.
The chief secretary's staff, who has served several bosses till date, is still attached to the chief minister's office, wondering what would be their fate now. But Nath has reportedly requested Faleiro to restore even the experienced staff his office had.
But Nath's limitations are made to known to him while restoring his powers to write the ACR. He still cannot write ACRs of the secretary, special secretary, joint secretary and under secretary attached to the CMO. The CM would personally do it, without having any reviewing or countersigning authority.
The cat is now out of the bag !
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