CURCHOREM
A meeting in remote Rivona village to address concerns of local farmers on Wednesday evening turned into an extensive clarification exercise, as Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar sought to clarify on a number of contentious issues to have hit his government.
Whether it was controversy over the reclassification of coconut trees, the arrival of SUMUL dairy into the State or the proposed DefExpo, Parsekar dwelt at length on the issues which have generated opposition from various quarters.
Commenting on accusations that the government had reclassified the coconut tree, Parsekar appealed to locals at the public meeting not to fall prey to misconceptions.
“Some politicians are deliberately misleading the people over the coconut amendment issue. Please do not fall prey to these misconceptions,” said Parsekar.
He also condemned the actions of some independent MLAs and opposition leaders who recently visited Amdai village in Sanguem to oppose the alleged felling of coconut trees for a proposed project.
“Some politicians are misleading people to gain political mileage as they are sensing that the 2017 assembly election are fast approaching,” he added.
Turning his attention to SUMUL's arrival in the State, Parsekar insisted that the government was not trying to bring down Goa Dairy.
“SUMUL is being brought to Goa to promote a healthy competition in terms of services, competitive rates, quality and quantity improvement. Right now, Goa's total milk production per day is 75,000 litres per day and we are planning to raise it to 1 lakh litres per day,” he said.
Commenting on dairy production in Goa, Parsekar added: “Despite several schemes, dairy production has not come up as per expectation.”
“In Gujarat, for instance, there are fewer schemes as compared to Goa, but dairy production is relatively much higher there.”
The chief minister also stated that Goa is the only State in India to offer support price to its farmer for the cultivation of sugarcane.
“Various agricultural schemes have been made available to farmers, which were not present during the earlier Congress government. I am also planning to increase the support price of the sugarcane from Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,300 shortly,” he informed the gathering.
Responding to the DefExpo controversy, Parsekar insisted that the four-day event would generate considerable revenue to Goa. “There will be huge number of hotel bookings by visitors from around the world who will participate and visit the DefExpo,” reasoned the chief minister.
“It is unfortunate that some people are spoiling the issue by unnecessarily opposing it. The DefExpo will be temporary for four days and land at Betul has not been given permanently to the defence ministry. Some persons are unnecessarily creating a negative hype against this project,” CM added.
Others present at the meeting included Forest Minister Rajendra Arlekar, South Goa MP Narendra Savoikar, Sanguem MLA Subhash Phaldessai, Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral and State BJP President Vinay Tendulkar, sarpanchas of different villages in the area.
