No separate IAS, IPS Cadre for Goa!

Goa will not be getting a separate cadre of the Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service (IPS) as the BJP government wrote to the Centre after coming to power in March that the State does not need a separate cadre and was satisfied with the posting of the IAS and IPS officers from the AGMU (Arunachal-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory) cadre.

This was revealed at a debate in the Rajya Sabha on Friday on the North-Eastern Areas (Re-Organization) Amendment Bill providing for the separate cadre of IAS, IPS and IFS (Indian Forest Service) to Manipur and Tripura. Goa’s Congress MP Shantaram Naik wanted to know why the case of Goa for a separate cadre of the all-India services had been ignored. He has been campaigning for it for the past two years.

Naik was, however, in for a shock when Minister of State for Home Mulapally Ramachandran snapped back saying the Goa government has informed in writing that it is not interested in having a separate cadre. He tried to pursue the matter after the debate when the minister showed him the Goa Government’s letter dated April 4, 2012 written to the Home Ministry to convey its stand on no need to have a separate cadre.

Naik further expressed that he was under an impression all this time that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was in favour of a separate cadre of Goa because of his public postures and hence the Chief Minister owes an explanation as to why he made the U-turn.