PANAJI
Cabinet minister Michael Lobo continued to keep the ruling BJP leadership on tenterhooks over his potential and much-speculated exit from the party and belligerently put his own government on a 48-hour notice to withdraw permissions to the controversial structure in the heritage precincts of the Old Goa church complex.
On a day that the BJP’s National President J P Nadda was in the State, Lobo publicly fired a salvo at Chief Minister Pramod Sawant exhorting him to address the issue of the controversial Old Goa construction in the “next 48 hours” or face an agitation statewide.
“If CM fails to take a decision, people of Goa will take one,” Lobo said and threatened that 2-3 lakh people can gather at a single call by the agitationists who are on a hunger strike at the site.
He told journalists that he had discussed the issue with the BJP’s State President Sadanand Shet Tanavade and that he would also meet Sawant on
Friday.
The structure co-owned by kin of top Maharashtra BJP leader Shaina NC is coming up at Old Goa and an intense agitation against it is on under the banner of Old Goa Action Committee, which has also filed a special leave petition before the Supreme Court of India.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant (Babu) Kavlekar, who holds the Town and Country Planning portfolio, indicated that the matter will be reviewed and licencing revoked if warranted.
Kavlekar was quoted by a news portal as saying that the blame for granting permissions to the allegedly illegal construction at Old Goa lies squarely on the shoulders of his predecessor Vijai Sardessai.
He also said that the file will be thoroughly reviewed and permissions revoked if violations are noticed.
