Wants INDIA manifesto to include scrapping of Khalsa-Bhandura project, demolition of illegal slums, POGO issue by April 20
OLD GOA
After having all along maintained that the Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) would have no truck with the INDIA bloc for Lok Sabha polls, the party chief Manoj Parab finally blinked and said that they will have seat-sharing talks with Congress if they accept their three conditions.
The three conditions included scrapping of the Khalsa-Bhandura project by the Karnataka government, demolition of slums and illegal structures of migrants that have come up on Comunidade and government land, and to spell out who is Person of Goan Origin (POGO).
Addressing reporters in Panaji on Monday, Parab further gave Congress up to April 20 to decide on the offer.
“The last date for withdrawal of nominations is April 22 and we give Congress time till April 20 to decide on the offer. Only after that will the RGP hold talks with Congress of seat-sharing,” Parab added.
Parab further said that the Congress, at its campaign meetings, are telling the people that they had made offers to RGP for seat-sharing talks but RGP did not respond.
“But, the fact is that the Central leadership of INDIA bloc never approached RGP on seat-sharing as we have always maintained that the offer should come from the Central leadership of the alliance and not the State leaders,” Parab said.
“So, with this offer we want to send the message loud and clear to the Goans that the RGP is ready for alliance with INDIA and Congress only if they meet the three conditions,” Parab added.
“As for Mhadei, it is the lifeline of Goa. If there is no Mhadei, then there won’t be any Goan. And that is the reason why RGP is demanding that the scrapping of the Khalsa-Bandura project should figure in the national manifesto of INDIA and not the State manifesto,” Parab informed.
“As for the second and third demands, they should figure in the State manifesto wherein the Congress should give assurance that they will support the demolition of illegal slums which have cropped up in Comunidade and government land,” he stated while adding that the migrants influx has increased in the State and maximum migrants are concentrated in the slums.
“They have taken away our land, our jobs, our identity and that is the reason why we want that the Congress give assurance that illegal slums will be demolished,” Parab said.
As for the third demand, Parab pointed out that the Congress should either support the Person of Goan Origin (POGO) Bill which was introduced by RGP in the Assembly or they should define who is POGO.
“If the Congress has problems with our POGO Bill, then they should define who can be called POGO whether it is a person residing in Goa for 5 years, 15 years, 30 years or the one who has just arrived in the State,” he informed.
Parab then said that if these three conditions are accepted by the Congress, only then will the RGP agree for talks over seat-sharing.
“For any seat-sharing talks to take place, Congress has to accept the three conditions first,” Parab stated.
Speaking on the occasion, RGP MLA Viresh Borkar also toed the lines of Parab and informed that the acceptance of the three conditions are a pre-requisite for any talks of seat-sharing with Congress.
“If the Congress is really serious about saving the identity of Goans, then they should have no hesitation in accepting these three conditions, which ensure that Goa is for Goans,” Borkar said.
