Lifetime ‘Cabinet rank’ but no work for Pratapsingh Rane, Goa govt’s annual burden Rs 1.15 cr

Copies of the state General Administration Department’s (GAD) files that lawyer Aires Rodrigues, who has challenged the BJP government’s decision in the Bombay High Court, accessed show that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s secretary Ajit Roy wrote in his file notings on April 6, “Shri Pratapsingh Rane ji has been accorded the status of lifetime Cabinet Minister. As such govt has not assigned any task to his office. Therefore, GAD is advised to examine the requirement of personal staff for the office of the lifetime Cabinet Minister for which no specific work or task has been assigned.”

The GAD order creating the posts for Rane’s office was issued on April 22. It stated that the staff would be appointed retroactively from January 7, when the government notified the Cabinet’s decision to grant “lifetime Cabinet minister” status to the former chief minister. The order stated that Rane would be entitled to two officers on special duty, one advisor, one undersecretary, two private secretaries, a personal assistant, three junior assistants, two computer-cum-telephone operators, two drivers, and four multitasking staff.

After the Cabinet gave post-facto approval to the appointment of the 18 staffers for Rane’s office, Sawant announced it on Wednesday. Asked about the Cabinet decision even when the matter was before the High Court, Sawant said, “We have done that for (Rane) completing 50 years (as a legislator) … the proposal will now be sent to the department of finance and personnel.”

The Cabinet of the previous administration decided to accord “lifetime status of the rank of Cabinet minister” to Rane in a meeting on January 6 in recognition of his service to the state for 50 years as a legislator, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, and chief minister. Among the Cabinet ministers who took the decision was his son and state Health Minister Vishwajit. The following day, the government notified the decision.

Rane, accepting the honour, wrote to the government on January 20 naming the 17 people he wanted on his staff. In the letter, which is part of the documents Rodrigues accessed, the former CM said, “I am honoured and pleased to accept the decision of the Cabinet.” Days after the announcement, the 11-time MLA from Poriem (Sattari before Goa was granted statehood in 1989) backed out of the Assembly polls even though the Congress fielded him from his bastion in the Assembly elections in February. His daughter-in-law Deviya Rane made her electoral debut from the constituency and won on a BJP ticket.

In the PIL, which was admitted on Monday, Rodrigues has urged the High Court to quash the January 7 notification, pointing out that Goa has a 12-member Cabinet and conferring the lifetime status to Rane raises the number of Cabinet portfolios to 13. That is more than the ceiling mandated by the Constitution, the lawyer has contended. He has stated that the purpose of the 91st Amendment is to prevent “jumbo Cabinets” and the resultant drain on the public exchequer. The lifetime status for Rane is a “back door entry in wilful disobedience of the mandate of law”, according to the PIL.

The PIL also states that since Rane was a Congress candidate at the time the decision was taken and “was capable of toppling the ruling party’s apple cart in Poriem, a mala fide strategy was adopted by the BJP to offer him a carrot not to contest elections”.

The matter will be heard next on May 2.