the goan I network
MARGAO
Former Minister Mickky Pacheco has come out strongly against Goa Miles, saying the taxi service will only displace hundreds of self-employed Goan youth who are eking their livelihood on the tourist taxi business along the coastal belt.
Taking up cudgels for the 200-odd tourist taxi operators from Colva, the former Minister called for the scrapping of the App-based taxi services, fearing that Goa Miles will displace 50,000 Goans employed in the taxi business.
Addressing the media, Mickky said he would stand by the beleaguered Goan tourist taxi operators,
saying that tourism will have no meaning if the slice of the tourist taxi business does not come to the local youth.
“Around 50,000 Niz Goemkars are engaged in the tourist taxi business. Just imagine the fate of these Goemkars if Goa Miles makes inroads. They
and their families will be thrown on the roads,”
Mickky said.
Asserting that the government cannot bring in Goa Miles when hundreds of local self-employed youth are eking a living on tourist taxi business, he feared that the families of the tourist taxi operators will face a terrible time to make a living if Goa Miles is allowed to have a free run in the State.
Saying that he is not against outsiders who have coming into the State,
since they are also Indians, Mickky said it is the responsibility of the Goa government to protect the sons of the soil.
Meanwhile, Mickky said Goans staying abroad should stop advising the people back home to protect Goa and stop the influx of migrants into the State.
The former Minister pointed out that if these Goans are really concerned about the future of Goa, they should come back and work in their homeland and stop the influx of migrants.
“Many of our Goan brothers are working in the private sector abroad and not in government service. They can come home and get themselves employed in the private firms,” he said,
while sending a message clear to the Goans living outside the State to come to their homeland and protect
their land instead of sermonising the people back
home to protect the State from migrants.
LS polls: Mickky says preferred to watch how Goa responds to national parties
MARGAO: Former Minister Mickky Pacheco said he preferred to watch the national parties slogging it out in the just concluded Lok Sabha election instead of fielding candidates for the two seats and the bypolls.
When asked to comment on his silence in the just concluded elections when he had unveiled plans to field candidates to defeat both the Congress and the BJP, Mickky shot back saying he preferred to watch how the people of Goa respond to the promises made by the national parties.
He said the Congress would have labelled him as a spoiler if he had to field a Catholic candidate for the South Goa seat, adding that the BJP would have made a similar charge if he had to field a Hindu in the election. “I want to make clear that the Congress-headed UPA and the NDA led by BJP are both sides of the same coin. They have failed to resolve the issues plaguing Goa for over a decade and half now and I do not see any major changes for Goa in the near future,” he added.
