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Goa Dy CM's brother charged with graft

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panjim

The Public Men's Corruption (Investigations and Inquiries) Commission has held a powerful politician, Subhash Narvekar, the brother of Deputy Chief Minister Dayanand Narvekar, guilty in a corruption case.

While the tourist state has been gripped with the civic polls, scheduled for October 15, the commission has even recommended that the state government debar Subhash, former president of the Mapusa municipality, from contesting.

"We have no option but to proceed with the recommendation," Urban Development Minister Francisco D'Souza, who is also Mapusa civic chief, stated.

The 25-page judgement has been referred to the law department.

Dayanand is Francisco's colleague in the Goan Peoples' Congress. They had split with nine others from the Congress in November, to form a coalition government with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Though Dayanand has been acquitted of charges of using his position in the government in the corruption case, for lack of evidence, Subhash has been told to repay Rs 600,000 to the Mapusa municipality.

The commission has held Subhash guilty of favouritism, malpractice and flagrant violation of rules and procedures in the construction of 60 stalls at the Mapusa market, at the cost of Rs 4.2 million, when its actual cost was only Rs 3.6 million.

As president, he had allotted construction to Chandrakant Shirodkar, without floating a tender, preparing plans or estimate or work inspection by a municipal engineer, while paying the amount collected from lessees directly to the contractor, without depositing it in municipal accounts, the commission held.

Though the case involves only Rs 600,000, it is considered a shot in the arm for the commission, a quasi-judicial body of recommendatory nature, since it could hold at least one person guilty after acquitting several politicians in the past for lack of evidence.

One such case against former chief minister Ravi Naik (now an opposition leader) was disposed of in 1997 for lack of evidence. Similarly, Dayanand had urged the high court to refer a case of an alleged irrigation scam to the commission, obviously because it had no teeth to punish the guilty.

As Chief Minister Francisco Sardinha is dilly-dallying over supporting the commission's recommendations, his coalition partner - the BJP - has demanded that action be initiated.

Dr Wilfred de Souza, Subhash's arch political rival and sole legislator of the Nationalist Congress Party, has also seized the opportunity to corner Sardinha, demanding that a special notification be issued to debar him from contesting municipal polls.

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