the goan I network
PANAJI
The Opposition party on Wednesday decided they had had enough with the state being without a Chief Minister for several weeks now, and took to the streets in protest of several alleged scams that shroud the BJP-led government.
Thousands of protestors led by the Congress MLAs, marched from the Dayanand Bandodkar Ground in Campal to Azad Maidan, with banners and party flags held high. Protestors carried seven coffins with “RIP” emblazoned on them, to symbolise the scams they allege the government has been party to.
The “Corruption Virodhi Jagor” as the Congress termed it, was in protest of the alleged looting of the state by the state government, through several alleged scams: the ‘Rs 1,40,00 crore Mining Lease Scam’, the ‘Rs 1,000 crore Serula Comunidade Scam’, the ‘Unlimited ODP Scam’, the ‘Smart City Scam’, the ‘Rs 15 crore Beach Cleaning Scam’, the ‘Unlimited Zone Change Case to Case and TDR Scam’, the ‘Ketamine Drugs Scam’, the ‘Rs 5,000 crore per year Casino Scam’, the ‘Unlimited GSIDC Scam’, the ‘Multi Crore Tourism Hotel Lease Scam’, the ‘Rs 133 crore SEZ Scam’, and the ‘Rs 5,00,000 per day Formalin Scam’.
The protestors held banners that read ‘Panaji Smart City or Garbage City?’, ‘Goa Cabinet in ICU’, ‘Confusao das Minas’ (Confusion of the Mines), ‘Tornatteank davrun bekkar, ICUn nhidlaa sarkar’ (The government is sleeping while the youth are unemployed), ‘Quiz of the Year: Who is the CM of Goa’, and ‘Madam Governor, Uphold the Constitution’, amongst other boards.
Around 3,000 protestors filled Azad Maidan, while the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Chandrakant Kavlekar, GPCC Chief Girish Chodankar, Goa in-charge of the party Dr Chella Kumar, Congress MLAs, ex-MLAs, and other Congress leaders sat on the dais to address those gathered.
Several Congress leaders including the LoP, GPCC chief, Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco, Velim MLA Filipe Neri Rodrigues, Tivim MLA Nilkanth Halarnkar, Margao MLA Digambar Kamat, Ponda MLA Ravi Naik, ex-CM Francisco Sardinha, ex-Union Law Minister Ramakant Khalap, Mahila Congress Chief Pratima Coutinho, North Goa District head Vijai Bhike, and others addressed the protestors.
Each of the leaders addressed one scam of the government. While Bhike addressed the protestors about the formalin in fish issue, Francisco Sardinha took up the issue of the 8000 candidates who had not made the cut in the Accounting Exam held by the Directorate of Accounts. “How did all 8000 candidates fail?” asked Sardinha. “Did the government make it a point to see that no one got even one of the 80 posts because there were no BJP-backed candidates who were eligible for the posts?” he demanded.
Further, Lourenco, cheered on by the protestors demanded where Parrikar, who had painted the Congress “corrupt” in 2012, was now. Rodrigues, who exposed Parrikar for trying to defame him when he held the Forest portfolio, also said that the government was not only corrupt, but it had organised its corruption. Rodrigues cited the Goa State Infrastructural Development Corporation (GSIDC) as an example.
Other leaders took up the issues of mining, and the Dilip Parulekar-led alleged beach cleaning scam with Mahila Congress chief, Pratima Coutinho alleging that ‘Parrikar did not let the CBI investigate the Dilip Parulekar-led beach cleaning scam as Parrikar’s own brother was involved in the scam.’
Having started at 4 pm, the protest went on till 7 pm.
