PANAJI
Addressing media at a press conference, Parsekar instead accused the Opposition of shooting themselves in the foot by disrupting question hour, time which usually allows the Opposition to corner the government.
“At first sight it appears that the money being spent is way higher than what was being spent earlier for the same work. Even I was under the impression that it was too much. However, now the scope of work too has expanded. They need to put dustbins every 100 meters, collection segregation, composting and scientific disposal of garbage needs to be done,” Parsekar said adding that only recently he has studied the issue because Parulekar was unwell.
“There are flaws, but they are from the department side. Where is the question of grading the lessee,” Parsekar asked.
“Despite everything, the beach cleanliness has greatly improved. It is a continuous process. Goan beaches have been named among several top beaches in the world as part of TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice awards both this year and last year. If they were not clean they would not have got the awards,” Parsekar said.
Asked to comment on the fact that directors of the companies that bagged the beach cleaning contract is the same person, Parsekar admitted that he first thought it was dubious, but since there was no such rule in the tender that the director of both the companies could not be the same, he found no problem with it.
Parsekar said that the Opposition was shooting itself in the foot by disallowing discussion during the question hour.
“I have been an MLA for ten years besides a minister for nearly five years now. Never have I seen the Opposition disrupt question hour. This is the time they get to corner the government. Even when we used to disrupt the House it used to be during the zero hour,” Parsekar said.
“There was no need for them to disrupt. The answers were all given in writing. If you think that there is something wrong, you should file a complaint. There was no need for Vijai to enter the Well of the House. He hadn’t asked the question nor was any answer denied to them,” Parsekar said accusing the Opposition of creating hype in a bid to cause an atmosphere of protest one year ahead of the elections.
