MARGAO
Benaulim MLA Churchill Alemao on Wednesday cautioned the government against making any attempt to declare the entire beach belt as a sand dune area, fearing such a move will spell doom for the tourism industry and badly affect the livelihoods of the local communities.
He also asserted that he has joined the Trinamool Congress party on a single ground that only TMC supremo Mamata Didi has the capability to fight the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah and become the next Prime Minister of the country.
Addressing the media, Churchill warned Chief Minister Pramod Sawant that any attempt to notify the beach and the sea as a sand dune will adversely affect the local population eking a living on tourism. “Sand dunes are natural gifts given by God. They cannot be created by human beings, howsoever man may try. I have no problem if the existing dunes are protected, but no attempt should be made to show the beach and sea as a sand dune,” he said, adding that any such attempt will only confirm the fears that the government is working to give the port and the beach belt for the corporates to bring coal.
On his decision to join the TMC, Churchill said there was no other agenda except the agenda that only Mamata Didi can fight the Modi-Shah juggernaut in the coming Lok Sabha polls. “Mamata Didi has shown her capability when she successfully stopped the BJP from trying to come to power in West Bengal,” he said.
Saying that Mamata Didi as the country’s Prime Minister will ensure a turnaround in the country’s economy, Churchill said it is a false notion that Mamata Didi has the support of only the Muslim community. “Bengal has 70 per cent Hindu population and she has stopped the BJP from coming to power with the help of Hindus, Muslims and all communities,” he asserted.
Churchill said he had in the past tried to get the Congress back to power, more so when former Chief Minister late Manohar Parrikar was ill, but the Congress leaders were simply not interested in forming a government fearing action by the BJP government at the Centre.
“Even the NCP leaders have no strength to take on Modi and Amit Shah. I had asked the NCP leadership eight months ago to work out an alliance deal with the Congress, but in vain. This shows they too were not interested in dislodging the BJP government,” he added.
