PANAJI: All India Congress Committee president Rahul Gandhi Friday said that the Congress party will restart ‘sustainable mining’ in Goa after coming to power in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
“In Goa, you have mining issue and we have taken a decision to start mining activity in a sustainable manner,” said Gandhi while addressing the party’s booth workers’ convention ‘Jeet ki Oar’ (Towards Victory) at the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee indoor stadium in Taleigao.
The Congress president said that former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar should be probed in the case pertaining to the stolen secret files of Rafale fighter jet deal from the Defence Ministry.
“The central government has told court that Rafale files have disappeared…just like how the government in Goa has disappeared, so if you want to initiate inquiry into the matter then you start your inquiry from Parrikar,” he demanded.
“Parrikar has clearly told his cabinet that he is in possession of Rafale files and he also told them Modi cannot remove him from chief ministership. And he threatened that if someone tries to remove him then he would make the files public. So if the files have disappeared then start an inquiry against Parrikar,” he added.
The national Congress president repeated the jibe ‘chowkidar chor hai’ targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the context of the Rafale fighter jet deal and also made a mocking remark saying ‘gayeb ho gaya’ (it is gone), referring to the stolen file related to Rafale.
Gandhi said that it is due to Narendra Modi that the delivery of Rafale jets has been delayed and it will take at least ten more years. He alleged that the Prime Minister undertook a parallel negotiation with France to benefit industrialist Anil Ambani in the Rafale deal with a contract worth Rs 30,000 crore.
He claimed that the tourism industry in Goa has suffered due to the implementation of demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax and has led to the creation of more unemployment in the state.
“Earlier, Goa was a centre for tourism but today, Modi is making Goa a coal centre for his crony capital friends,” he charged.
Gandhi promised minimum guaranteed income to the bank account of every poor, if Congress is voted to power in 2019. “In Goa, students and businessmen have taken loans, which are never waived off, but loans of India’s top business tycoons are waived off by Narendra Modi. If BJP can give money to rich people then we have taken a decision to give money to every poor in the country which will be directly credited in their bank accounts,” he said.
The booth workers’ convention was attended by thousands of Congressmen, AICC secretary in-charge of Goa desk Chella Kumar, AICC secretary Amit Deshmukh, All India Mahila Congress Committee general secretary-in-charge of Goa Mahila Congress Apsara Reddy, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president Girish Chodankar and Congress Legislature Party leader Chandrakant Kavlekar along with party MLAs and leaders.