MAPUSA
Tourism Minister Manohar Azgaonkar alias Babu on Tuesday told the House that State government had no intention to hold Carnival programmes on beaches but emphatically declared that it was needed to promote tourism in the State.
“We need Carnival to promote tourism. That is why I took carnival to far North in the village of Morjim this year,” Azgaonkar said while replying to a question from St Andre MLA, Francisco Silviera.
Referring to Congress MLA from Mandrem, Dayanand Sopte, the tourism minister said that a section of the people opposed Carnival celebrations in Morjim.
“They tried to stop the celebration in Morjim. Your MLA extended his support to the opposition brigade. We had invited him but he did not attend the function,” he said pointing to the opposition benches in the Assembly.
At this, Sopte sprang to his feet to deny the allegation and accused the minister of spreading false information. “I was not called for the preparatory meeting. No official invite was given to me,” Sopte retaliated.
A furious Azgoankar hit out at the Congress MLA for denying the facts and used an unparliamentary word to describe him, which was later expunged by the Speaker.
The tourism minister also informed the St Andre MLA that government had no proposal to organize shows of famous Indian stars during the carnival festival.
