PANAJI
All the opposition parties, except the Goa Forward, on Tuesday met Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai seeking his intervention to the growing communal disharmony in the State.
The delegation, led by Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao also urged the Governor for necessary directions to the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to conduct population census, in line with Bihar government’s caste-based census, to ensure political reservation is given to Schedule Tribes (STs).
The delegation consisted of AAP MLAs Venzy Viegas, Cruz Silva, AAP State President Amit Palekar, Congress MLA Alton D’Costa, Congress State President Amit Patkar, RGP MLA Viresh Borkar and State unit heads of Shiv Sena and TMC.
Speaking to media persons post meeting the Governor, Alemao said that the government should ban all such anti-social elements involved in causing communal disharmony in the State. “If they can ban Pramod Mutalik fearing possible communal disharmony through his hate speeches, then a similar formula should be adopted for all such anti-social elements,” he said.
Alemao said that with Lok Sabha elections coming up, more and more such incidents are likely to take place. “Proactive steps need to be taken. Being a tourist State, we cannot compromise on such issues,” he said.
Pointing out that Schedule Tribe people have threatened to boycott the LS polls, the opposition urged the government for directions to the State to conduct State census and not to wait for Central census to take place post 2026.
“If Bihar, with 13 crore population can conduct their own census then why can’t the Goa government? We have got only 15 lakh population. The Bihar government spent Rs 500 crore on the census and the entire exercise was completed within nine months. Taking our population into account, we would be able to complete it within three months,” he said.
Alemao said that the Governor has assured to write to the Chief Minister about our demands.
Meanwhile, Alemao ruled out any divide within the opposition. “We all are united. We are not divided. Why someone (Vijai) is not here, I should not be questioned. We all are here together,” he said.
