The Goa Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Parrikar, has promised to reduce corruption in the state by “80-90 per cent” before his government completes six months.
“At the end of six months of my government’s tenure, the corruption will be down by almost 80-90 per cent,” Mr Parrikar said at an event here last evening.
“I never said there will be zero corruption, but I had said there will be zero tolerance towards corruption,” he added, responding to the criticism that he had not been able to end the corruption after coming to power in March this year.
He said his government made all possible efforts to remove the root-causes of the malady. He claimed that he had so far cleared 12,000-14,000 files, kept pending by the previous Digambar Kamat Government. Most of them were routine files, he said.
This backlog was created intentionally to create opportunities for corruption, the Chief Minister alleged.
“There was a moral collapse of the government,” he said.
He also alleged that in its last year, the Congress-led government did not grant promotions to the junior officers, though the promotions were due, and there was a shortage of senior-level staff in the administration.
Mr Parrikar promised that after the code of conduct (enforced ahead of June 4 Cortalim bypoll) ceased to operate, new officers would be recruited and promotions would be cleared.