Times of India | 1 week ago | 13-05-2022 | 01:16 am
Panaji: RTI documents have revealed that the cash-strapped Goa government paid its advocate general (AG) over 2 crore between June 2019 and Jan 2022 for 32 months. The government has been paying the AG up to Rs 8 lakh as professional fees in addition to retainership, HRA, conferences, consultation, and sumptuary allowance, which goes up to Rs 37,000 per month. The government paid him a total of Rs 8.3 lakh in total for the pandemic months of March, April and May 2020. The cabinet took a decision on June 10, 2019, to appoint Devidas Pangam as advocate general with rank and status of cabinet minister with immediate effect in place of Dattaprasad Lawande. Pangam was appointed on June 14, 2019. RTI documents of the law department (establishment) obtained by advocate Aires Rodrigues state that the fees claimed by the AG are as per approved rates sanctioned by the government in April 2013. Rodrigues, in 2013, had stated that then AG Atmaram Nadkarni was being paid Rs 8 lakh per month, excluding other perks, and added that this was the highest amount paid to an AG in the country. The fee hike was sanctioned by then chief minister Manohar Parrikar in 2013. Former Union law minister Ramakant Khalap said the government must cut down on its expenditure overall, but added that the AG’s predecessors also received the same fee structure. “Lawyers fees have gone up throughout the country. Parrikar approved the fee hike when Nadkarni was made AG. The present AG, Pangam cannot be blamed for this,” Khalap said. The government has been spending left right centre, most recently at the swearing ceremony, he said. TOI recently reported that the state government spent Rs 5.5 crore on the swearing ceremony of CM Pramod Sawant-led BJP government on March 28 at the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium. “The government without a doubt must cut down on expenditure. Holding the post of an AG is a responsible and fulltime job. The government fritters its money away on so many other paraphernalia. It will do so again with the international film festival of India,” he said.
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