Union Minister Nitin Gadkari can't instruct Goa Chief Secretary: AAP

PANAJI: The AAP in Goa on Friday accused Union Minister for Shipping Nitin Gadkari of interfering in state government affairs, claiming the BJP-led coalition government in the state was non-functional in the absence of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who is undergoing treatment in the US for advanced cancer of the pancreas.

Accusing the BJP of meddling with the federal political structure, Aam Aadmi Party general secretary Pradeep Padgaonkar also told the media that a three-member ministerial committee formed by Parrikar to handle day-to-day administration, before leaving for the US earlier this month, was a "joke".

"The BJP has reduced Goa to a colonial state, where a central minister like Gadkari can come and order our Chief Secretary on how to run the administration. He has no business doing that. This is an attack on the federal structure of our country," Padgaonkar said.

The AAP official was commenting about Gadkari's visit to the state earlier this week when the minister in an interaction with the media had claimed that he had instructed the Goa Chief Secretary Dharmendra Sharma on how to run state administration, especially about going slow in terms of police action on pro-mining protestors who were booked for violence on March 19.

Gadkari's visit to Goa on March 20 came a day after protestors demanding resumption of mining in the state had been lathicharged by the police, after they blocked all entries and exits to the state capital for more than four hours.

"There is no governance in the state right now. The three-member committee appointed by Parrikar is non-functional. Administration in the state has become a joke," Padgaonkar said.