Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and his eleven Ministers made a total of 94 official visits within India from 9th March last year to 5th April this year. This has been revealed in the information furnished by the General Administration department under the Right to Information Act.
Of the 94 official visits 30 were to Mumbai with all being either a same day return or overnight stay and with most of them being at the weekend. Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar tops the list having made 29 official visits with 11 each to Delhi and Mumbai besides a visit each to Hyderabad and Kolkata while also making two official visits each to Gujarat and Pune. The Chief Minister also traveled on a two day official trip to Dehradun. Transport Minister Sudin Dhavlikar whose special interest is traveling as per the official government website stands second with 15 official visits including five to Delhi and four each to Mumbai and Chennai besides two trips to Bangalore. Industries Minister Mahadev Naik ranks third having made 11 official visits which include six to Delhi, four to Mumbai and one to Daman. According to Mahadev Naik’s official profile traveling is also his hobby. Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza made five trips each to Delhi and Mumbai while Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar made four visits to Delhi, two to Mumbai and one to Shirdi. Health Minister Laxmikant Parsekar made four visits to Delhi and one each to Nagpur and Chennai while Power Minister Milind Naik traveled four times to Delhi and once to Mumbai. Sports Minister Ramesh Tawadkar whose profile also cites traveling as his hobby made four official visits with three being to Delhi and one to Mount Abu. Environment Minister Alina Saldanha traveled once each to Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi. Water Resources Minister Dayanand Mandrekar made two trips to Delhi while Fisheries Minister Avertano Furtado also with traveling as the hobby in his official profile, made only two trips to Mumbai and being the only Minister in the cabinet that did not make an official visit to Delhi. Co-operation Minister Deepak Dhavlikar traveled the least with having made only one official visit to Delhi though traveling being also his hobby as per his official profile. Interestingly the information furnished reveals that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and six of his cabinet Ministers traveled to Delhi on 26th April last year. As per the information furnished Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar on 22nd October last year traveled to Mumbai and returned the same evening only to travel back to Mumbai the next morning for the day. The General Information department has also informed that the week long visits to London by Power Minister Milind Naik and Industries Minister Mahadev Naik were the only two overseas official visits made by the Goa Ministers. The department has further informed that information on the unofficial visits made by the Chief Minister and his Ministers within India and Overseas was not available. Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has been liberally allowing his Ministers to freely travel within India and abroad at State’s expense, just to keep them content. Manohar Parrikar while as Leader of Opposition had vigorously objected to official visits especially the overseas trips by Ministers. As part of the promised Parivartan the Chief Minister should have put a total embargo on overseas visits by Ministers. The London visits by Industries Minister Mahedev Naik and Power Minister Milind Naik are not the only official visits made by Ministers overseas. All the travels unnecessarily made being an act of gross maladministration need to be probed. Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar should show Zero tolerance to wastage of public funds by curbing the Ministers from unnecessarily traveling at the tax payer’s expense and at times showing visits for personal or party work as official. Aires Rodrigues T1 - B30, Ribandar Retreat Ribandar - Goa - 403006 Mobile: 9822684372
