PANAJI
Goa Congress on Friday welcomed the verdict of the Supreme Court and demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant while charging that the BJP’s unconstitutional functioning in Goa now stands exposed.
Speaking to the media, Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar said, “BJP exposed its unconstitutional, undemocratic and dictatorial functioning in Goa. Now,the CM must resign. Subsequent to the orders of the High Court as well as the Supreme Court, BJP stands exposed to its unconstitutional, undemocratic and dictatorial functioning in Goa.”
Chodankar demanded that the government should start the election process freshly in other municipalities also as per his earlier letter to State Election Commission including Valpoi, Cuncolim and Pernem.
“We had told that the government should respect the order of the High Court and should not challenge it in the Supreme Court by spending money of taxpayers. Why should taxpayers' money be used for protecting the ego and unconstitutional functioning of the BJP government and its leadership,” Chodankar questioned.
He also said that if Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who speaks about protecting morals, governance and democracy, is true to his words then he should immediately ask Sawant to step down.
“PM Modi gives well penned speeches to attract people, but in reality they have different faces. Not only the CM, but the Urban Development Minister Milind Naik and officials involved to do illegalities should be punished,” Chodankar said.
Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat also welcomed the verdict and held that it is the real tribute to Goa’s first Chief Minister Dayanand Bandodkar.
“The SC verdict on municipal elections is a real tribute to ‘bhagyavidhata of Goa’ Bhausaheb Bandodkar on his birth anniversary, who had a vision to empower bahujan samaj and women. The people of Goa will celebrate this moment in the true spirit of democracy”, stated Kamat.
He lauded the landmark judgement of the SC for giving out clear cut directions to all governments across the nation to maintain independence of State Election Commissions. The LoO said that the judgment has once again reaffirmed his strong belief in the winds of change across the nation. “Time has come to stop the ‘jumla raj’ of the BJP which runs on fake promises”, Kamat stated.
The Congress leader, however, rued that the statutory body of SEC violated all guidelines bowing before the people in power.
SC verdict not only for Goa
but entire country: GPCC
VASCO: Hailing the Supreme Court verdict as a landmark judgement not only for Goa but the entire country, GPCC Vice President Sankalp Amonkar sought to know why Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has been silent especially when the other two BJP MLAs in Vasco have been upset with Urban Development Minister Milind Naik.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Amonkar said the government's position in the ward reservations was shameful and the SC verdict was a humiliation for the government.
"The SC decision is a landmark judgement not only for Goa but for the entire country and people will continue to have faith in the judiciary.”
Amonkar said he was confident that justice would prevail against the ward reservations.
"Why is Chief Minister Pramod Sawant silent when his own cabinet minister Mauvin Godinho and Vasco MLA Carlos Almeida is upset with Urban Development Minister Milind Naik, who was the mastermind of wrong reservations which caused injustice to women, SC, ST and OBC communities.”
Amonkar said the State government should not have gone ahead with the election process while the matter was taken up in the supreme court.
"People have spent a lot of time and money after the election process was initiated and the candidature forms were accepted. I will write to Naik to refund my money that I have spent on my panel of candidates," said Amonkar.
