SURGICAL
STRIKES
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PANAJI
A rally of nearly 9,000 bikers from across the State will welcome Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar as he arrives in Goa on October 4. The grand felicitation is being planned by Bharatiya Janata Party after the army successfully carried out surgical strikes in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir across the Line of Control.
Speaking to media after BJP’s State executive meeting, President Vinay Tendulkar said, “The defence minister will reach Goa on October 4 and will be welcomed at the airport by party workers from Mormugao taluka. Nearly 200-300 bikers from every constituency will organise rallies which will culminate near Azad Maidan in Panaji where the defence minister will be felicitated.”
Meanwhile, the BJP has strongly defended the decision of the Centre to nationalise six of Goa’s rivers. It has, however, condemned the opposition to nationalise Goa’s rivers.
“Goa’s six rivers have been included in the National Waterways Act. This inclusion will help in conserving Goa’s rivers. This will help in getting finds from the Centre for dredging, seamless transportation”, said Narendra Sawaikar.
He, however, informed that nationalisation does not take away the rights of the State over its rivers.
“Discussions on this issue were held in Lok Sabha as well as Rajya Sabha. Even in a reply to a question raised by MP Shantaram Naik in 2015, it was stated that after declaration of any inland waterway as a national waterway, only the development and regulation of waterways as specified in the Inland Waterways Authority of India Act comes under the purview of the central government, while all the aspects continue to remain under the purview of the respective State Government”, said Sawaikar.
“If rivers are dredged, it will help in transportation. State Government has been taken into confidence and this move has been taken”, he said.
The six rivers which have been nationalised are Chapora, Cumbharjua, Mandovi, Mapusa-Moira, Sal and Zuari.
