Gogoi draws flak

Rehabilitating 'failed' ministers

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, February 24: When Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi appointed three advisors yesterday, he took the number of such advisors with cabinet rank in the State to seven.

The advisors are entitled for a slew of facilities, that inevitably cost the government exchequer dearly.

However, not many are sure about the functions of such advisors.

Except for CM’s press advisor Bharat Chandra rah, who has been quite active, the others have been more or less non-existent.

Gogoi has four advisors appointed earlier – Dr Vibha Dhawan (Biotechnology), R Borthakur (Investment) and PP Verma (Monitoring), besides rah.

Gogoi inducted three more advisors yesterday – Pradyut Bordoloi (Education), Nilomonisen Deka (Agriculture) and Gautam Roy (Barak Valley development). The trio was removed from the cabinet in last month’s reshuffle.

Many have questioned the logic behind their appointment as advisors. They cited that Bordoloi has been a “failure” as a minister of some key departments, including Power and Industry. There were allegations of rampant corruption in the Agriculture department when Deka headed it. Roy, on the other hand, had been facing allegations of bringing about a commission raj in the PHE department.

One wonders how they can function as advisors when they have been “utter failures” while leading heavyweight departments as ministers earlier.

The Opposition parties say their appointment is a strategy of “rehabilitation” and “appeasement”. “First they are removed from the ministry for under-performance and then they are inducted as advisors. There is no logic as to why they should be roped in as advisors, especially when there is just a year to go before the Assembly elections,” said an Opposition leader.

It is learnt that Tarun Gogoi, a year ahead of the Assembly elections, is planning to induct a few more MLAs as parliamentary secretaries and chairman of boards.