PANAJI: The Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Parrikar on Friday said that his government has plans to establish Subordinate Staff Selection Commission on the lines of Goa Public Service Commission in the state for selection of class C and D employees in government departments.

Addressing a gathering at the inaugural function of the silver jubilee celebration of the Goa Public Service Commission, the Chief Minister said that the commission would be established to regulate and organise flawless recruitment of C and D class employees.

He further said that the commission will do away the maladministration and corrupt activities seen in the recruitment of class C and D employees. He also said that the recruitment process would be transparent and done on merit. He said that better bureaucracy meant better governance.

Referring to the GPSC silver jubilee celebrations, he said that it was time for the commission to introspect in order to ensure best delivery thereby ensuring better administration to the state for the next 25 years.

The Governor, Mr Bharat Vir Wanchoo said that the silver jubilee celebrations notwithstanding, it was time for the commission to retrospect and introspect. He said that the commission has the autonomy to select the personnel to be appointed to higher posts fearlessly and that it ought to do it in unbiased, transparent and impartial manner.

He stressed on the need for innovation in governance systems for speedy, effective and efficient administration. He said that in present age there was no place for inefficiency and high-handedness in administration and that government servants should have a definite and deliberate concern for the welfare of the people.

"If we want to raise the standard of service which is our bounden duty, the persons recruited to occupy positions of responsibility must be persons of knowledge, efficiency and integrity," he said adding that they should not be people who would deviate from their path on account of political or other extraneous considerations, but would work with zeal, integrity, and objectivity, without fear, favour or affection.

The Governor also said that Goa Public Service Commission should, therefore, assiduously assess and revisit its performance of the 25 years, so as to bring about the required changes to evolve a better mechanism to carry out its responsibility and to be in sync with modern times.

Mr Atmaram Nadkarni, the state advocate general said that many in state bureaucracy selected by the GPSC over the years were upright, with a good number of them being outstanding. He, however, said that some were non-functioning and corrupt.

He said that GPSC has been doing a good job over the years and there were no allegations of any scam in the selection process so far. He called for an end to ad-hoc promotions of the government officers, which was used as a tool to undermine the "freedom" of government servants and their subsequent "misuse".

The former chairmen of the GPSC, Dr J C Almeida, Mr Justice (Retd) Alvaro de Noronha Pereira, Dr H Y Karapurkar, Mr Antonio D’Souza and Late Avinash V Vaze and former GPSC members, Mr P V Sinari, Dr Jolly Mascarenhas, Mr J A Kenny and Dr Sitaram Korgaonkar were felicitated on the occasion.

Earlier, Mr Prakash N Dessai, chairman of GPSC gave the welcome address and Mr T S Sawant, secretary of the commission proposed a vote of thanks.