Centre must withdraw DPR or will call for bandh: Vijai

Panaji: GFP president Vijai Sardesai said that while chief minister Pramod Sawant says it was the Congress government that mishandled the Mhadei issue between 2007 and 2012, the very Digambar Kamat who was the Congress CM at the time is now in Sawant’s cabinet, and then Congress president Subhash Shirodkar is now the WRD minister.
Sardesai was speaking at the ‘Save Mhadei, Save Goa’ public meeting held at the Virdi-Amona ground on Monday.
He said that a call for a Goa bandh will be given if the Centre does not withdraw the sanction given to Karnataka’s revised detailed project report within 15 days .
“He (Sawant) claimed the opposition MLAs did not attend the all-party meeting on the Mhadei issue. But these co-accused for mishandling the Mhadei issue were part of the meeting, and so we as the opposition did not see the point of being with the same people who are responsible for the mishandling of the issue,” said Sardesai.
He said that a day before the Save Mhadei meeting, the CM addressed the public over the Mhadei issue in a last-minute attempt to douse the fire blazing in the backyard of his constituency, Sanquelim.
“To retain his chair, Sawant is now ready to sell something that he has said he considers bigger than his mother,” said Sardesai.
Stating that the Goa governor, during his address in the assembly on Monday, did not speak a word on the Mhadei issue, Sardesai said that “they are all traitors”.
“Pramod Sawant said that I moved a congratulatory motion in the assembly when the Mhadei Water Disputes Tribunal’s award came, not knowing its implications. Sawant himself was the speaker at the time,” he said.
“If you feel your work is not done, then you should resign and I am with you in giving my resignation. BJP has this one nation concept, where rivers and forests are considered one and that you should give them away to other states like Karnataka. If we want to fight this technique, we should start resistance at the grassroots. Let all 40 MLAs resign if your double-engine does not work,” said Sardesai.