LOA Vol 36 - Issue - 02 - 15 Oct 2012
EDITORIAL:
Bon Voyage Seshasai
Capt. Seshasai Director Shipping Services
had a graceful exit from the Islands with
loads of disgraceful accomplishments to his credit. He had inherited everything
Capt Paul James left, including his corrupt practices. But, Seshasai was of a
different league altogether. He went one step ahead, tweaked and reinvented
better tactics. And as a master of anecdotes, he could easily floor anyone with
his countless jibes on everyone and everything.
When Captain Seshasai joined the Shipping
Directorate, he was one of the three Directors and assigned Operations and
Maintenance. Anyway, he was not keen to continue as 'one of the Directors' and
had told LOA at that time that without complete control, he would not be in a
position to bring any positive change to the department. He was given complete
control as the whole and sole Director. Like any tenderfoot, he too showed all
idiosyncrasies in the initial period. In boiler suit, he was found in the
dockyard early mornings as a timekeeper. By the time, he could understand the
work culture of his employees; he had obviously learnt the ways to consolidate
his grip on the cash-rich department. With a large fleet of sick vessels,
unable to decommission or make operational, he found it a tough go. New vessels
joined, but could not cover the demand. The onus once again fell on the whole
and sole director to explain. He had by now learnt how to dodge the complaints.
Technically, he would try to convince or ultimately confuse those who went to
him with complaints. It was a cakewalk for him to charm the gullible Secretary
Shipping and even the Chief Secretary.
The Shipping sector touched the lowest ebb,
with stars too failing in favour of the captain. Three ships which he did not
place order joined the fleet during his tenure and all three of it failed to
sail and remained tethered for more than 4 years. It gave him another weapon to
blame his predecessors.
Capt Seshasai had made lots of demands and
promises to bring sanity to the department But, his hollow promises failed
miserably, with the services severely hitting rock bottom. And, in the
meantime, corruption touched another level with his sordid greed increasing day
after day.
After a series of Vigilance and CBI raids,
glaring instances of corruption came to the fore. From crankshafts, gearboxes,
navigational equipments and corruption in everything, the department had turned
into a black hole of corruption.
But, it is unfortunate that the Admn instead
of keeping him tethered to the Islands and
making him pay for the corrupt deeds, he was given a soft kick with
repatriation to his parent organization. The safe passage to Capt Seshasai
shows the resolve of the Admn in tackling corruption. It was not the efforts of
the Admn, but the tireless efforts of a few who had to approach court to get
the big fish in the net. Unluckily, the fish got a free and safe passage.
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