Cong workers rally against corruption in state govt

NT NETWORK

PANAJI

The Congress on Wednesday held a massive protest rally called ‘Zagor against corruption’ in the state capital, accusing the BJP-led coalition government of indulging in ‘wholesale and organised’ corruption.

A large number of Congress supporters took part in the rally, which began from the Bandodkar grounds, Campal, and moved towards the Azad Maidan.

The morcha culminated into a public meeting where party leaders castigated the government over the alleged corruption.

Addressing party workers, Goa pradesh Congress committee president Girish Chodankar thundered, “Zero tolerance to corruption was one of the assurances made by the BJP during the 2017 assembly elections.

However, they have failed to keep the word.  This government is deep into wholesale corruption…”

He alleged that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has given his cabinet colleagues freehand to indulge in corrupt practices.

Chodankar questioned as to why Rs 918 crore are being released under the Smart City project when the CCP is given only Rs 60 crore.

Opposition leader Chandrakant Kavlekar said the BJP is against the Bahujan Samaj and is muzzling the voice of Goans.

“This coalition government is on a mission to sell Goa through the properties owned by the Goa Tourism Development Corporation… The government can earn Rs 500 crore, and they are leasing them for 99 years just for Rs 12 crore…,” Kavlekar alleged.

Senior Congress leader and Poriem MLA Pratapsingh Rane said that over 60,000 people have directly lost their livelihood due to the closure of mining activities.

He said the government is not doing enough to resume the mining in the state.

Ponda MLA Ravi Naik and Margao legislator Digambar Kamat were of the opinion that third Mandovi bridge was not needed and priorities should have been given to other needs like continuance with benefits of welfare schemes to Goans, as doles have been stopped due to the paucity of funds.

“The IPB is a big scam. It was established just to bypass local bodies…  Parrikar made it a single-window system so that they can make money easily. The BJP has broken all records… they have effected biggest corrupt practices in the history of Goa,” alleged Curtorim MLA Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco.

Velim MLA Filipe Neri Rodrigues and Thivim MLA Nilkanth Haldankar also went hammer and tong against the government over the alleged corrupt practices.

Earlier in the day, Congress leaders and MLAs met Governor Mridula Sinha urging her to direct chief vigilance officer Dharmendra Sharma and Director General of Police Muktesh Chander to initiate action and register an FIR against Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar and three others in connection with the second renewal of the mining leases, which were quashed by the Supreme Court.