[Reader-list] Goa: EC officials in soup over night out

[PREETU NAIR]

Goa: EC officials in soup over night out

10 Apr 2009, 0425 hrs IST, TNN

Panaji: Three election observers and their liaison officer enjoyed a dinner and boat cruise last Saturday, but trying to treat that as complimentary may have been the reason an officer was relieved of his election duty.
    According to government sources, three election observers — Chanchal Tewari (IAS), Masood Hassan (IAS) and T C Jose (IRS) — along with liaison officer M Olwatt were treated to a ‘‘complimentary dinner and boat cruise’’ on the river Mandovi last Saturday. The request for the complimentary cruise was reportedly made by deputy director (tourism) Pamela Mascarenhas on Saturday, when she called up the Goa Tourism Development Corporations assistant manager at the Santa Monica booking counter asking him to arrange the complimentary dinner aboard the vessel.
    Though GTDC does not give complimentary passes without the managing director Benjamin Braganza’s consent, the four election officers were given these, despite it being a weekend and Braganza not available.
    Sources said that on Monday, deputy North Goa district election officer P S Meena wrote to the GTDC seeking that the election officials’ night out on Saturday be cleared as complimentary. Ironically, a copy of this letter was sent to the Goa State Election Commission.
    TOI learns that, keeping in view that the beneficiaries were election observers who were here to conduct a free and impartial poll, Braganza refused to allow the dinner to be shown as complimentary.
    As the GTDC refused to budge, the payments for the dinner and boat cruise were finally made on Thursday. ‘‘We received the payments and the receipts were made out in the names of the election officials concerned,’’ a GTDC source said.
    Meena, meanwhile, has been relieved of election duties. However, returning officer and North Goa collector K S Singh played down the entire episode. ‘‘Nobody has taken complimentary passes. As for Meena, we had asked for his services only temporarily due to the burden of work during election time. He has been relieved as he has to attend a family function,’’ Singh said.
    The returning officer, however, did not confirm that Meena had written the letter asking for the complimentary passes for the election commission officials. 

The Times of India, Goa edition

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Preetu Nair
Principal Correspondent
The Times of India,
Miramar,
Panaji,
Goa-403 001
India
http://goadourado.sulekha.com/blog/posts.htm
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