Daylight robbery by BJP government in Goa

The Goa office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has sought from the Goa Government a complete and proper reply to the queries raised on the exorbitant fees being paid to Advocate General Atmaram Nadkarni.

CAG in a letter to the Goa Government on 23rd January this year had sought an explanation and justification on the very high fees being paid to Goa AG. With no reply received the Deputy Accountant General on 22nd April once again wrote to the Law Secretary calling for the information urgently which was followed by another reminder on 19th August.

After a delay of eight months the Under Secretary Law on 24th September replied to CAG only giving copies of the appearance certificates of the Advocate General while giving no explanation and justification to the query raised by CAG on the very exorbitant fees being paid to the Advocate General of Goa as compared to other states. Ironically the Law department in reply to CAG’s letter sent in January has justified the delay in replying as on account of the Assembly Session from July to August.

CAG now in its reply to the Goa Government this week while pointing out that the queries raised remain unanswered has sought an urgent response. 

Acting on a complaint filed on 16th May last year on the very exorbitant fees being paid to the AG of Goa, the office of CAG made a comparative study with the states of Haryana, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya and found that the fees being paid to the Goa AG were very high. 

CAG in its comparative chart drew the Government’s attention that while the Goa AG for an appearance before the High Court is paid Rs 10,000 per case, that the AG of Haryana is paid Rs.1000 while the AGs of Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya are paid Rs.5000, Rs.3000 and Rs.2500 respectively. The CAG further informed the Goa Government that while the Goa AG is paid Rs.75,000 for appearance before the Supreme Court the Haryana AG gets paid Rs.2000 while the AGs of Manipur and Meghalaya get paid Rs 10,000 with the Arunachal Pradesh AG paid Rs.3500. 

Goa despite being the smallest state was not only hosting India's highest paid AG but the country's highest paid public servant. The President of India is paid Rs 1,50,000 a month, the Chief Justice of India Rs 1,00,000 and a High Court Judge Rs 80,000 but the AG of Goa Atmaram Nadkarni is being paid up to a whopping eight lakhs a month besides Rs 75,000 on every visit to Delhi which was nothing short of a day light loot and plunder of the State’s exchequer.

Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on 23rd May 2012 had directed that the fees of AG Atmaram Nadkarni be hiked due to the very high inflation being faced by the AG. The government by an order issued on 8th April last year hiked the fees of the AG from a monthly maximum of five lakhs to eight lakhs. The AG’s per appearance fee before the High Court was hiked from Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 per case per day. In addition the AG is now paid Rs.75,000 per day on every visit to Delhi regardless of whether he appears before the Supreme Court or not. The hike in fees was made retrospective with effect from 1st April 2012. The AG also gets 15 personal staff as entitled to a Cabinet Minister.

Information furnished by the Directorate of Accounts under the RTI Act revealed that Goa Government paid AG Atmaram Nadkarni by way of fees and other allowances a whopping Rs.2,055,9032 (two crores fifty five lakhs nine thousand and thirty two rupees) for the two years from March 2012 to March 2014. As per the information the Government also spent a further Rs.10,14,869 (ten lakhs fourteen thousand eight hundred and sixty nine rupees) on the business class airfare for the 17 trips made to Delhi by AG from January 2013 to March 2014.