Tarun Gogoi fond of advisors, not advice!

Public money squandered as CM appoints advisors one after another

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, May 23: Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi seems to be fond of appointing as many advisors as he can. Most of the earlier chief ministers of the State were known to consult some senior ministers and a handful of bureaucrats. But Gogoi, even if he does not take much advice from his ministers, loves to flaunt a large team of advisors by his side. It is another matter altogether whether they serve any useful purpose or not.

There are also doubts what kind of suggestions the Chief Minister is being given by these advisors and how much and to what extent he is implementing these suggestions on the ground. But over the years, Gogoi has been appointing advisors one after another.

Chief Secretary to the State Jitesh Khosla, who is retiring this month, has been appointed by Gogoi as an advisor to the Assam government and posted in Delhi. The Assam government already has officials like Resident Commissioner, Assistant Resident Commissioner, Additiol Resident Commissioner, Officer on Special Duty, Delhi and few others posted in the tiol capital to liaise with the Central government. So is there really any need to depute another official as advisor to the State government in Delhi?

Unfortutely, Chief Minister Gogoi has not bothered with or gotten around to implement recommendations of the Assam Administrative Reforms Committee (AARC) in the last ten years. Then what will he do with such a huge team of advisors?     

Interestingly, Jatin Hazarika, the then chairman of the AARC, has again been appointed as advisor (Administration Reforms) to the Chief Minister who did not implement the recommendations of the AARC once headed by Hazarika.

What is the Chief Minister actually trying to show by appointing Hazarika as his advisor? What kind of advice will Hazarika give to the Chief Minister now on administrative reforms?

Officials and politicians like PP Verma, Ranjit Borthakur, Bharat rah, Dr Vibha Dhawan, Nilomoni Sen Deka, Pradyut Bordoloi and few others are already working as advisors to the Chief Minister, but he seems not to think twice before appointing more of them. Is this not a shameful waste of public money?