PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant who visited the site where repair and renovation work of the Kala Academy complex is in progress, denied there was any wrongdoing or a scam.
Sawant also said that most of the Kala Academy complex, barring the main auditorium will be ready and used for this year's edition of the International Film Festival of India.
It will be fully complete by December 8 when it will be used for the World Ayurveda Complex, he added.
Sawant on Thursday evening visited the site where work is in progress. He was accompanied by the man at the centre of the controversy Art and Culture Minister Govind Gaude and PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral.
Giving Gaude a clean chit, Sawant said there is "absolutely no scam" and all procedures were correctly followed.
Sawant also said, the exaggerated figures quoted by the Opposition leaders in their allegations are wrong.
Earlier, Fatorda MLA and Goa Forward Party (GFP) chief Vijai Sardesai had raked up the controversy around the renovation Kala Academy saying it is an "ongoing scam".
"The estimates have now reached Rs 60 crore," Sardesai alleged at a news conference where he castigated Chief Minister Pramod Sawant for failure to step in and act against the minister involved.
He demanded that Sawant either ask the minister to resign or sack him even as he refrained from naming him although he did name Art and Culture as the rogue department.
