Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar and home minister P. Chidambaram have entered into a tussle over the appointments of IPS officers, with the chief minister of the BJP-ruled state accusing the home ministry of 'unilaterally appointing IPS officers in the state without taking the state government into confidence'.
The BJP government in Goa has even started refusing to accept the appointments of IPS officers in the state made by the Union home ministry. Mr Parrikar has demanded an apology from the home ministry for its 'unilateral' decisions.
“The home minister never consults me, so I have rejected all his orders. We are moving for a Goa cadre of IPS officers,” Mr Parrikar said in Goa. Holding the Union home minister responsible for the mess over IPS appointments, Mr Parrikar said, “Chidambaram is not my boss. We are equal.”
“The Union home ministry should apologise to me because they have started unilaterally appointing IPS officers in Goa,” he said.
While the home ministry refused to join issue, top home ministry sources said that if states do not cooperate in timely relieving and joining of officers in their cadre , then cadre-management by the MHA becomes difficult.
Currently, Goa is under Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories cadre. It all began with Mr Parrikar first writing a letter to Mr Chidambaram on May 22, refusing to relieve IPS officer R.S. Yadav who was functioning as DIG in the state.
Mr Parrikar, in his letter to the home minister, said that another IPS officer, L.V. Prasad, posted by the MHA as DIG in the state, “lacks adequate field experience which is absolutely necessary to discharge the duites of DIG in the state , which is an important tourist destination.”
He urged Mr Chidambaram to cancel his tranfer order and allow Mr Yadav to continue till such time the MHA posts two other DIG rank officers who are ‘’reasonably efficient’’. Mr Yadav subsequently had to relinquish charge as per directions of the MHA.
On Tuesday, Mr Parrikar accused the MHA of issuing renewal orders for officers posted there without consulting the state government.”I have started refusing every order of the Home ministry pertaining to the appointment of IPS officers,” he said. About the Goa cadre, he said, “I have asked the Chief Secretary to move a proposal for creation of Goa’s own IPS and IAS cadre.”
Just two months into his tenure, Mr Parrikar has already become popular with everyone talking about his bold move of doing away with VAT on petrol. Now, the man in question has taken on Mr Chidambaram.
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