THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
The Congress on Tuesday trained its guns on the BJP candidate for the Panjim bypoll Siddharth Kuncalienkar alleging that Kuncalienkar had been involved in a multiple-crore scam during his term as chairman of Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL), the special purpose vehicle that was formed in order to make Panjim a “smart city.”
President of the Congress Girish Chodankar asked on what merit Kuncalienkar had been given power over IPSCDL when he was not an elected representative of the people.
“No one gave Kunkalienkar power except ex-CM Manohar Parrikar, who in fact gave Kuncalienkar the power to loot,” said Chodankar.
The president also alleged lots of corruption within IPSCDL, and said that the party had obtained documents under RTI proving this corruption, which the party would lay bare in front of the people in the run up to the Panjim by-election.
“The annual budget for Smart City is Rs 50-60 crores. Yet, where is the development in Panjim that the Prime Minister had promised?” questioned Chodankar. “Kuncalienkar has proved himself a complete failure as far as the project is concerned,” he said.
The Congress demanded that Kuncalienkar put forward a white paper immediately on the expenditure incurred by Smart City, and reveal the cost-benefit ratio to Panjimites.
Chodankar named three major scams of IPSCDL as the walking bridge at Miramar, the tender for the restoration, refurbishment and redesign of interiors of IPSCDL offices, and the tender put out to paint Zebra crossings in the city.
“In Miramar, IPSCDL replaced just the tiles of the walking bridge at the cost of Rs 1.2 crores. To renovate the Smart City offices, a tender of Rs 20 crores was put out, and a tender of Rs 35 lakhs was put out to paint Zebra crossings in the city. Will the city become “smart” by doing this? This is only “smart corruption”, said Chodankar.
Cong, AAP slam CM for saying Panaji bypoll focus on devpt, not jobs
PANAJI: Both the Congress and AAP, on Tuesday, slammed Chief Minister Pramod Sawant for saying that job creation was not a priority for the Panjim by-election.
Demanding an apology from the CM, Congress chief Girish Chodankar said, “It was an immature and irresponsible statement. The CM is making the youth more frustrated at a time when there is a dearth of employment opportunities.”
Meanwhile, AAP Panjim candidate Valmiki Naik said that the CM’s statement exposed BJP’s lack of vision for the capital, particularly the youth of Panjim.
“I challenge BJP candidate Kunkolienkar to agree publicly with his CM that jobs for Panjim youth are not a priority for him,” said Naik, who added that the statement was also an admission by the BJP of its complete failure despite ruling the city for 25 years, and the state for 12 years.
Sawant on Monday, after Kuncolienkar filed his nomination, had said that while the state government would complete all pending developmental projects initiated by former CM Manohar Parrikar, providing jobs could not be a priority for the Panjim bypolls.
