PANAJI: The ordinary meeting of the Corporation of the City of Panaji held on Thursday witnessed the city councillors unanimously demanding the removal of the deputy commissioner of the CCP Kapil Phadte from his post for questionable performance.
The city councillors also demanded that all important files presently in possession of the deputy commissioner be immediately taken back by the CCP commissioner.
CCP Commissioner Deepak Desai however maintained that he cannot take any decision on the particular demand, but can forward the same to the directorate of municipal administration.
“It is the DMA or the government, who has to take a decision in this context,” he told the CCP councillors, adding that whenever a government appoints an officer, he or she needs to be entrusted with some work, and hence the deputy commissioner is presently looking after taxation and accounts related work.
A highly-placed government official however maintained that the Goa, City of Panaji Corporation Act, 2002 allows the CCP councillors to remove the government officials in the service of the corporation, such as the Commissioner and the deputy commissioner, from their post.
The Act states that such officials shall from time to time be appointed by the state government. It further adds that these officials shall hold office during the pleasure of the state government. Furthermore, it maintains that these officials shall be forthwith removed from office if at a meeting of the corporation not less than three-fourths of the total number of councillors constituting the corporation for the time being shall vote in favour of a proposition in this behalf; and he may be removed by the state government at any time if it appears to the state government that he is incapable of performing the duties of his office or has been guilty of any misconduct or neglect which renders his removal expedient.
Speaking to ‘The Navhind Times’ after the ordinary CCP meeting, city mayor Surendra Furtado said that he has already written to Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar seeking the transfer of the CCP deputy commissioner.
“The related file however is stuck on the table of the Chief Minister,” he alleged, adding that a related resolution has already been forwarded to the government.
Furtado also informed that the CCP commissioner had instituted an inquiry in the scam related to payment towards permission for road cutting issued to Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd for laying 4G cables by the corporation.
“A two-man committee was formed to investigate the same, and comprised of deputy commissioner Kapil Phadte, and accounts and taxation officer Bernard Devassy,” he added, maintaining that misappropriation of an amount of Rs 66.65 lakh was linked to the payment towards permission for digging of city roads. “However, the deputy commissioner received a cheque of Rs 42 lakh from the telecommunications company overnight, and deposited it in the bank account of the corporation, without intimating anyone,” the city mayor stated.
The CCP councillors demanded to know the fate of the municipal engineers namely Shuba Sawant Amonkar and John Abreu, who were recently transferred by the DMA following allegations of corruption linked to the laying of 4G cables by the Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.
The CCP commissioner replied that he has already forwarded a related report to the DME and any decision about the punitive action against the two engineers, as well as recovery of money lost by the corporation allegedly due to the two municipal engineers, needs to be taken by the government.
The report of the CCP commissioner forwarded to the DMA makes observations as regards rate applied for such digging, the calculation of the amount while issuing permissions to the said agency, total length of measurement or cables, payment of related fees, and so on.
The CCP councillors at the ordinary meeting also suggested that the CCP should annually charge rent from every agency, using the land under its jurisdiction for any purpose including laying of the cables. “The rate should be Rs 600 towards every meter of the cable laid underground,” they added.
The CCP councillors further suggested that a police complaint should be filed against the telecommunications company, and if the company fails to make any payment to the corporation then the cables should be drawn out of the ground.
Incidentally, the files as regards the transactions of the CCP with the Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd are missing from the corporation office. The commissioner however has the photocopies of the missing documents and is expected to seek legal opinion with their aid.