MAPUSA
The BJP-led government is all set to appoint its Mapusa MLA Joshua D’Souza as the chief of the Mormugao Planning and Development Authority (MPDA).
Top government sources informed that a notification to declare Joshua as the chairman of the MPDA is expected to come up as early as next week.
The decision was finalised after Mapusa MLA agreed to take up the new assignment as the head of the MPDA.
So far, no one has been appointed as the chairman of the MPDA.
Soon after taking charge, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant reappointed Joshua as the vice-chairman of Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) which he himself heads.
The decision did not go down well with the MLA and his supporters who were rooting for a ministerial berth for the youthful leader of Mapusa.
Demoralised and feeling humiliated, the sulking MLA refused to take charge as the vice-chairperson of the GSIDC.
In an attempt to pacify the young leader, the party leadership offered him the post of deputy speaker which was also rejected by him.
D’Souza was first made the vice-chairman of the GSIDC after he got elected as an MLA for the first time in the 2019 by-election after the death of his father late Francis D’Souza.
He has been elected for the second time from the Mapusa constituency after taking over the baton from his late father Francis D’Souza who was virtually no 2 in the BJP hierarchy.
The D’Souza family has been winning the Mapusa seat for the BJP for more than two decades now.
