Goa govt assures GSHRC payment of food supplier employed during BRICS to be kept on hold

The Goa government on Thursday assured the State Human Rights Commission (GSHRC) that the payment of the food supplier employed during last year’s BRICS Summit, would be kept on hold until the rights panel takes a decision on the issue.

Social activist Aires Rodrigues had filed a petition with the GSHRC last year after several policemen on duty for BRICS Summit, held in Goa on October 15 and 16, complained about sub-standard food being provided to them that was outsourced from a private caterer.

In his written reply to the complaint filed by Rodrigues, State Chief Secretary Dharmendra Sharma today assured that the payment to the private contractor would not be released till the GSHRC decides on his plea.

Sharma also said that a decision regarding imposition of any penalty on the contractor would also be taken only after the conclusion of the proceedings.

Based on Rodrigues’ complaint, the GSHRC, in October last year, had noted a “major scam” involving Rs 51.60 lakh in providing substandard food to police personnel posted on duty during the BRICS Summit and ordered an inquiry and stoppage of payment to the contractor.

The GSHRC, headed by Retired District Judge A D Salkar, has adjourned till March 15 the next hearing on Rodrigues’ complaint on the alleged food scam.

In his reply, the Chief Secretary also stated that police officers Serafin Dias, Mahesh Gaonkar and Jivba Dalvi had complained that the food served to the police personnel during the BRICS Summit was of “poor and substandard quality, which was not good for consumption while the packaging itself was unhygienic”. Inspector Nolasco Raposo had visited the site at Verna, where the food was being prepared and found it to be very unhygienic and in an open space, it said.

Sharma also said that Police Inspector Roy Pereira complained of food poisoning after consuming chicken biryani on October 16 and that the staff deployed at Naval Airport had also orally informed that substandard food was supplied to them.

In the complaint to the GSHRC, Rodrigues had claimed that the Rs 51,60,000 contract given to Amonkar Classic Caterers was sub-let to a road-side contractor, who clandestinely prepared the food in an open place owned by the police department next to the Verna Church Cemetery.