MARGAO
Day two of Congress’s Jana Gana Mana, Nomon Tuka Goykara, exercise saw its leaders, MLAs and workers descending on home turf Salcete “ which had stood by the party in the 2017 Assembly by winning it six out of the eight seats at stake.
Congress leaders also sent a clear signal that the party is ready to launch an all-out war against the government in the form of an ‘andolan’ if public grievances remain unaddressed by the government.
While State Congress President Girish Chodankar made it to the KTC bus stand on a motorcycle taxi, other leaders took the public transport to arrive at the bus stand before they all headed to Mormugao taluka in a KTC bus after interacting with commoners “ bus drivers and conductors, passengers, stall owners et al.
If Leader of Opposition, Babu Kavlekar, was conspicuous by his presence at the launch of the programme in Panjim on Tuesday, Nuvem MLA Wilfred D’Sa joined the program at the KTC bus stand along with Mahila Congress Chief Pratima Coutinho, Congress District President Joe Dias, and councilor Avinash Shirodkar.
“We are using public transport to approach the people since there’s total absence of governance in the State. Public frustration is evident everywhere. People are complaining -- right from water and power to maladministration. We will take up these issues with the government departments,” Girish said, while sounding a note of caution that the Congress is ready to kick start an andolan to get the grievances addressed.
“At Mayem, we came across people complaining bitterly about water shortage. Then, there were businessman crying foul over GST coupled with fuel price hike. We also came across people from the mining belt complaining of their own problems,” he said, demanding to know whether there’s any governance worth its name in Goa.
Nuvem MLA Wilfred D’Sa said the party cadre is all charged up since the time Girish launched the programme. “The state is facing the worst power crisis. People across the State are facing power outages 24 times, if not more in a day.”
