It was her first posting following her promotion, when Biju Naik took over as Chief Officer (CO) of Curchorem-Cacora Municipal Council (CCMC) on February 1. But her bold actions have angered CCMC Chairperson Santosh Karmali and some councillors, who accuse her of ‘misusing’ her powers.

Over the last few weeks, the council and the CO have been involved in a series of verbal duels, each attempting to assert their control in the municipality. Herald reports the conflicting views of the Chief Officer Biju Naik and CCMC Chairperson Santosh Karmali.

The Council wants CO to be its puppet: Biju Naik

The CO is misusing her powers: Santosh Karmali

Due to the demand for cleanliness from public and given the limited number of workers at CCMC, I issued an order on February 25, directing two workers stationed at the CCMC office building to take up the work of cleaning the fish market.

There are already two peons and they are sufficient for a small office like the CCMC. Keeping two additional workers only to prepare tea for the staff and to wash the utensils is totally unjustified. Moreover, the cleaning of the fish market was only allotted for the afternoon session.

However, the CCMC Chairman in his memorandum, claimed that the chairman’s consent for such an office arrangement was not taken under Section 74 of the Municipalities Act and alleged that my directives were done out of vengence.

This has been deliberately made against me to gain sympathy from the two workers and to create a rift between the chief officer and the CCMC workers. The staff is under the control of the CO. But if the council interferes with such office orders, then the day-to-day functioning of the CO would become difficult, thereby affecting the progress of the town.

Allotment of work

According to Section 74 (1) (a) of the Municipalities Act, the powers and duties of the chief officer are ‘subject to the control, direction and supervision of the chairperson.’ Moreover in Section 74 (2), it is stated that ‘the chief officer may, with the sanction of the Council, delegate any of the powers or duties or functions conferred or imposed upon or allotted to him to any municipal officer or servant.

Despite these clear cut rules, the CO is misusing her powers and has been taking decisions without informing the council. The two council staffers who have put in over 15 years of services in the council office were suddenly asked by the CO to clean the fish market. And this order was passed even without my knowledge. This amounts to nothing but harrassment of the council staffers and we will not tolerate this.

On what basis does the CO take decisions? Is the chairperson not justified in asking the CO for an explanations into the decisions taken by the CO? The CO claims to be supreme and refuses to take orders of the chairperson. This only amounts to an insult to the post of chairperson.

In many instances, we have found the CO taking office files home. The CO is not supposed to take office files home. In a recent case, I wanted to study a file pertaining to the new parking space. I found out that one plan was missing and that, the CO had taken the plan home. How can the chairperson function in such a situation?

I began work of clearing encroachments on foothpaths as per the high court’s orders and in this regard, recently confiscated the goods of a newspaper vendor near the railway station.

But the council has been interfering in this matter, especially after concerned newspaper vendor contacted ward councillor Shailesh Dhumaskar, who in turn reported the matter to the chairperson.

The chairman called me to his cabin and in the presence of a reporter and the newspaper vendor, asked me not to take up such steps. I however advised the chairman not to obstruct the implementation of the high court.

It appears that the council wants the CO to function as its puppet and is adopting a vindictive attitude against the CO. The council seems to have adopted a strategy to mentally torture the CO and could even go to the extent of manhandling the chief officer.

Encroachments on foothpaths

We have no objection if the CO clears encroachments on the foothpaths and we have absolutely no intention to obstruct the orders of the high court.

But why were the goods of only one vendor confiscated by the CO? If there has to be a policy, it has to be implemented uniformly and not on a selective few.

Ward councillor Dhumaskar had proposed during the council meeting that the CO be removed from the existing sitting arrangement in the CO’s chamber and made to sit outside along with the general staff, on grounds that the CO is a public figure.

This resolution has been proposed by Mr Dhumaskar only out of indecent intentions against the chief officer. Further, he offered to withdraw this proposal, provided the CO succumbs to his demands.

An intention behind the shifting of the CO in the open hall is to lay a free hand on various files placed on the CO’s table. Both the chairperson and the CO are public figures and so, the chairperson should be also made to sit out in the open hall.

CO to sit in open hall

We have noticed that the CO keeps herself free to the public for only 2 hours in a day. One person has been found in her cabin for most of these two hours. No one really knows what discussions go on inside the CO’s chamber.

What about the other public? Do they not have the right to meet the CO? In the interest of the citizens, the council has the right to allot space to the CO in the office building.

A row has even broke out regarding the use of the CCMC vehicle. As the CCMC’s Sumo jeep has been requisitioned by the district magistrate for the ZP elections, both the chairperson and the CO have the right to use the other Qualis jeep for official use.

However, Mr Dhumaskar had threatened to stop the vehicle and stone the office vehicle, if the CO or any technical staff is seen inside the CCMC vehicle. Are we supposed to use garbage trucks to carry out inspections in the municipality?

Even though the CCMC vehicle is meant for office use, Mr Dhumaskar declares that it is only meant for the use of the chairperson and that, use by any other person degrades the dignity of the chairperson.

Sometimes, I take about 10-15 important files home to study them. If I don’t have the vehicle at my disposal, am I supposed to carry these files and travel by train?

CCMC vehicle

The jeep was being misused by the CO for personal purposes. How else can one explain the movement of the jeep at about 10 pm? This upset the councillors who threatened to stop the jeep, if the vehicle was found moving at night.

I would also find out at times that there was no jeep to transport me on official work. I was not made aware of the wherebouts of the jeep and hence I asked for an explanation. And if we ask the CO for an explanation, she accuses us of threatening her.

Mr Dhumaskar has threatened the CO of dire consequences if the people of his choice are not given top priority. I clarified that the CO, being a public servant, cannot discriminate between citizens, as if this practice is followed then councillors will target those people not in good books with them.

What invites the ire of the councillors is that the public now has easy access to the CO to get their problems solved and hence, the value of the councillors has diminished.

Priority to Councillor’s people

On no account did we insist that the CO only attends to the people of the particular councillor. We found out that if works are not taken up, the people will confront their elected councillors and not the CO.

Hence, we wanted that the respective councillors be involved when the CO attends to the file of the particular area. This is necessary so that the particular councillor can monitor the progress of the files that are taken up by the CO.

As part of goodwill, a public meeting was convened by me on February 17 to know the grievances and problems faced by them.

However, the chairperson warned me not to hold any meeting with the public without consulting him. In my opinion, the CO needs to know the grievances of the people so that effective solutions are given to their problems. In fact, my decision to hold a public meeting to hear their grievances was appreciated by the public and was even termed as ‘unique’.

CO’s public meeting

We have no objection if the CO decides to hold a public meeting. But what upset me was the fact that others were aware of the meeting well in advance, while I was informed of the meeting at the last moment.

By law, the CO is not empowered to take policy decisions, but can only implement the policy decisions taken by the council. If this is the case, what can the CO do by merely convening a public meeting? Suppose a citizen asks that a particular work be done, can the CO take a decision to this effect? By keeping councillors in the dark of this meeting, what is the CO trying to prove?

At the council meeting on March 2 at 10.30 am, the council even went to the extent of expelling a senior citizen, Shailesh Sanzgiri, who occupied the meeting hall as a mute spectator, despite rules that the public is allowed to attend council meetings.

When I tried to clarify that citizens have the right to attend a council meeting, the councillors raised their voices and used abusive and offensive language at me and began banging the tables, in a move to intimidate me.

The council has also tried to restrict citizens from attending council meetings by holding the meeting in a closed chamber, even though the council has a spacious hall which can accomodate at least 100 people. Moreover, by trying to allot one pass for each of the 10 councillors, it gives the impression that the council only wants 10 citizens close to the councillors to attend council meetings.

CCMC meeting

If the council has to discuss private or confidential matters during its meeting, the council has every right to ask a member of the public to leave the hall. In fact, the citizen, Shailesh Sanzgiri, without permission was found sitting in the meeting hall even before the chairperson and councillors could enter the hall. At our request, Mr Sansgiri volunteed to leave the hall.

Councillor Shailesh Dhumaskar and others only confronted the CO on matters pertaining to the law and did not get into personal arguments with the CO. We certainly did not abuse the CO. All the discussions can easily be verified in the minutes of the council meeting.

However, the CO challenged the council and insisted that the CO is supreme. While differing with her, we brought to her notice that it is the council and not the CO that is supreme. We also expressed our displeasure that the CO was not taking the chairperson and councillors into confidence while issuing orders.

Regarding the restriction in number of citizens attending the council meetings, we have no problem in allowing more people to attend the meeting. But in the past, citizens would attend the meeting and would interrupt the proceedings and confront the councillors, even though the citizens have to remain silent spectators at the meetings. Time and again, this problem arose, forcing the council to adjourn the meetings. Hence, we thought of restricting the number of people to those who would not interrupt the proceedings.

The mental torture and pressure from the council is too much for the CO, especially since open threats and humiliations are being given to a lady officer by the council. The vindictive attitude is being adopted only to demoralise the CO so that she succumbes to their illegal demands and begs for mercy before the council.

The chief officer has been deputed by the government and hence, the council should respect the person occupying the post. Apprending threat to my life, I even lodged a police complaint to this effect and demanded police protection. But the Curchorem police is yet to act on my complaint.

Police complaint

PI Nelson Albuquerque asked Councillor Dhumaskar to come to the police station in connection with the complaint filed by the CO. I accompanied the councillor and asked the police inspector for the reason for summoning the councillor to the police station.

Councillor Dhumaskar gave his statement, stating that he never had any personal confrontation with the CO. He only conveyed his protest and views regarding the objectionable functioning of the CO.

I have sent a report in this regard to the DMA, the chief secretary, Women’s Commission, South Goa Collector and the department of Urban Development.

Future course of action

We have sought an appointment with the Directorate of Municipal Administration and other authorities to discuss this issue at length. We want to insist that this is not a personal fight, but a fight to protect the powers of the chairperson and council. If our meetings fail, then we will have to take recourse to other actions.

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