Goa CM intervened, cleared power works: Nilesh Cabral

PANAJI: Days after expressing his frustration with the finance department for not clearing power works in the state, power minister Nilesh Cabral told TOI that chief minister Pramod Sawant — who holds the finance portfolio — had now got around 14 work proposals cleared.
Around eight of the works cleared by finance department are underground cabling projects, the delay in sanctioning of which had triggered Cabral.
“Around five to six proposals have been cleared by the works board and seven-eight proposals have been cleared by the expenditure finance committee,” he said.
With finance approvals, we will be able to tender the works soon. At least eight of these approved works are of underground cabling in different parts of the state,” Cabral told TOI.
Cabral had said on June 8 that he would request the chief minister for a joint meeting with finance department officials. But Cabral told TOI that the CM has now assured him of his intervention, and promised that a joint meeting would not be necessary to get the stuck power department files cleared.
“I conveyed it to the CM and he said he has intervened, and other files will also be cleared soon. He said he will take it up with the finance department and a meeting need not be required,” said Cabral.
Earlier this week, Cabral’s outburst against the finance department, headed by Sawant, had come close on the heels of the CM rejecting the power and law minister’s proposal to provide marriage counselling to couples in Goa to bring down the divorce rate.
Cabral lashed out against the finance department, after being asked by mediapersons about the status of the long-pending underground cabling works in the state.
Cabral had said that the finance department had been returning most of the power department files with a remark that a full-fledged state budget had not yet been passed. This is hindering work of underground cabling in the state, he had said.
“I am going to ask CM whether I should work or sit at home. Files are being sent back by the finance department with a note that the proposal should be sent after the budget, but no one knows when the complete budget will be passed. After the budget is passed, the finance department will send another circular curtailing expenditure. I will ask the CM how works like underground cabling are to be taken up,” Cabral had said, adding that he felt ashamed to give false assurances on underground cabling works.