Home India Politics Row over PWD officials attending Congress party meeting in Goa

Row over PWD officials attending Congress party meeting in Goa

By IANS,

Panaji : The presence of nearly a dozen senior Public Works Department (PWD) officials at a meeting of the Congress party’s grass-root workers held at the Congress House Monday, has kicked up a minor political storm in Goa.

The meeting was called by the PWD minister Churchill Alemao to discuss the grievances of party workers vis a vis issues related to his ministry at the Congress House in Panaji, which houses the headquarters of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee.

While condemning the minister for violating administrative procedures and politicizing the PWD, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has now called for a vigilance enquiry against the “spineless PWD officials”.

“The Congress has never followed administrative norms and practices. What has happened is shameless behaviour by these officials,” party spokesperson and general secretary of the state BJP unit Govind Parvatkar told reporters Tuesday.

“A vigilance enquiry has to be initiated against these officers who attended the meeting at the Congress House. The department has to issue them a show cause notice to explain their behaviour,” Parvatkar said.

Parvatkar explained that government officials were bound by service rules and could not go about attending meetings at any political party’s office.

While PWD Principal Chief Engineer A.M. Wachasundar could not be contacted for comment, Alemao said that the meeting was part of the Congress party’s recent move to make sure that the party’s grass root workers had access to the minister.

“The presence of the PWD officials was to ensure that party workers with grievances relating to the PWD could directly convey their issues to the department and seek redressal,” Alemao said.