PANAJI
Aam Aadmi Party Delhi MLA Raghav Chadha on Sunday declared that the BJP-led State government in Goa is rattled by the AAP’s ongoing Veej Andolan.
Chadha announced that he would address the first Veej Andolan rally in Valpoi constituency in January 2021 and dared Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to arrest him for it.
Briefing the media, Chadha asserted that the Chief Minister and BJP government in Goa is totally rattled with the tremendous response AAP is getting and the manner in which people are participating in the Veej Andolan and demanding that they too should receive electricity like in Delhi.
He pointed out that the BJP government has been sending police at the venues of their Veej Andolan rallies to disrupt the same and announced that because of the code of conduct coming in force due to the Zilla Panchayat elections the same has been suspended for the moment and will resume in January 2021.
It was dislosed that so far over 1.65 lakh Goans have pledged support to AAP through the missed call, over 73 thousand people personally through calls while 2.62 lakh people filled up the forms for the referendum.
Chadha congratulated the people of Goa for withstanding the pressure tactics used by the government by abusing State machinery. “The police asked the people gathered for the meetings to go home but the brave and courageous Goans did not move,” he said while lambasting the Chief Minister for abusing the State machinery.
He further sought to know under what provision of law AAP leader Sandesh Telekar was arrested two days ago while addressing a meeting at Valpoi.
“Stopping the meetings to suppress the voice of the people is like stopping the watch to stop the time,” Chadha said adding that AAP will not get intimidated by such abuse of State machinery.
He disclosed that the meeting held in the constituency of Power Minister Nilesh Cabral was disrupted with power cuts.
He reiterated his earlier announcement that AAP when it forms the next government in Goa will provide up to 200 units of power free of cost to consumers and give a rebate of 50 per cent on bill for those consuming 200 to 400 units of power.
Replying to a question he said that power bills have become a major issue in Goa which is faced with other problems including unemployment and said that power billing cycle will be changed to give bills for 30 days only.
He said it was unfortunate that Goa has become a land where politics of merger and acquisition dominates and pointed out that BJP has acquired MLAs who were elected on the Congress ticket. “Besides two sons of one MLA have also joined the BJP thus establishing that BJP and Congress are joined at the hip,” he said.
Meanwhile, dismissing the charge of former convener Elvis Gomes that the AAP is a B-team of BJP, Chadha pointed out that this allegation has been made anywhere and everywhere and thanked Elvis for his services to the party but refused to make any other comments.
Replying to another question, Chadha said that the AAP stands by the farmers in their fight against the Modi government and its anti farmers legislations and said the party was also supporting the all India bandh call given by the farmers.
