the goan I network
PANAJI
The Congress on Wednesday went gunning for Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s head demanding his resignation accusing him of running an unresponsive administration and for the alleged failures “on all fronts” of his government.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in Panaji, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president, Girish Chodankar called the Sawant government “thick skinned”
“He (Sawant) is failing on all fronts,” Chodankar said, adding that youth attacking the police in the incident at Cuncolim on Tuesday was a clear sign of lawlessness in the State.
“The chief minister should resign and focus his energies on his property business,” Chodankar said in an oblique reference to the recent controversy over Sawant’s real estate investments in Goa and at Dodamarg in neighbouring Maharashtra. Chodankar also took pot-shots at Sawant over the latter’s recent jibes at former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the 15 years delay in liberating Goa from Portuguese rule, calling him “ignorant of history”.“He should read history books before blaming Nehru for the delayed liberation of Goa,” he said, before holding Nehru responsible for delayed freedom of Goa,” Chodankar said and accused Sawant of taking Goa backward by 15 years.
Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Trajano D’Mello demanded that the State government withdraw the circular issued by the Education Department on January 13 making it mandatory for schools to host events on January 16 to mark the 70th anniversary of the country adopting the Constitution. D’Mello said January 16 is notified as “restricted holiday’ by the State government and most minority (Catholic) institutions celebrate the feast of Goa’s patron saint Joseph Vaz, he said. The seventeenth century priest born in Benaulim in 1600s is the only Goan among scores of saints in the Catholic Church.
