CANACONA
If the rift between Art and Culture Minister Govind Gaude and Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar has widened over cultural events in Tawadkar’s Canacona constituency, the political one-upmanship has now shifted to Gaude’s Priol constituency.
On the very day that organisers announced the cancellation of the 5th
Kala Utsav (Art Festival) 2024 which was to have been inaugurated by Gaude at Indrawada-Gaondongrim, sources said Tawadkar had gone to Marcela on Saturday and announced his plans to replicate his Shram Dham housing project for the needy in Priol constituency.
According to sources, Tawadkar addressed a meeting with BJP workers of Priol constituency at Marcela and said he had plans to build seven new houses under his Shram Dham project to needy people.
Sources also added that the meeting was attended by a leader opposed to Gaude who had contested assembly elections in the past, after being denied the BJP ticket.
When contacted, Tawadkar said he had gone to Priol constituency for personal reasons.
“At that time, party workers there put before us a proposal for houses to be built for poor families of Priol constituency under the Shram Dham project. Hence, I decided to build houses under this project for the needy citizens,” said Tawadkar.
“Under the Shram Dham project, houses have been constructed for 20 needy families in my Canacona constituency so far and we plan to take the project across the State. We have decided to build 100 such houses during this year”.
“We have even got requests for Maharashtra for houses under the Shram Dham project. The sarpanch of a village in Sangli-Miraj in Maharashtra has requested us to build a house for two orphaned siblings of his village under the initiative. We will build a house for those two orphan siblings through this project,” said Tawadkar.
Tawadkar’s Shram Dham project, which has been widely appreciated by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and several other central and State leaders, has built 20 houses for the needy people of Canacona constituency belonging to different communities. He has plans to build a total of 100 houses this year.
As part of this project, people are encouraged to ‘Donate Rupee One and Work for a Day’ to build these houses for the needy. Such has been the interest that Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had inaugurated 20 such houses of the Shram Dham project.
Tawadkar’s plans to introduce his Shram Dham project in Gaude’s Priol constituency is expected to provoke Gaude, and their relations are likely to further deteriorate.
The bitter feud between Gaude and Tawadkar over various events funded by the art and culture department in Canacona had escalated when the 5th Kala Utsav (Art Festival) 2024 scheduled at Indrawada-Gaondongrim on Sunday at 4 pm was cancelled late Saturday evening.
