PANAJI
Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar sought to ward off charges that his government was politicising the distribution of LED bulbs, saying that the bulbs were not being denied to anyone, even as he admitted that BJP workers were involved in urging people to avail of the scheme.
"Government functions are being organised, and ministers are called to distribute bulbs. The local MLAs are also invited to be a part of it," Parsekar said.
"The BJP party workers are involved in helping people come and collect the bulbs. I think this is a good thing. It is not as if we are denying bulbs to those who did not vote for us last time round," Parsekar said.
He was responding to allegations that the government was politicising the LED bulbs distribution programme through advertising it as a party's doing. It was pointed out to the Chief Minister that even people like BJP spokesperson Damodar Naik had issued advertisements for the distribution of bulbs.
"If Damu Naik gave an advertisement, it will be at his own and not on government's expense," Parsekar stated.
The entire exercise has come in for criticism from the opposition over its bulb distribution programmes. To date, the government has distributed 4.05 lakh LED bulbs to 1.35-lakh families across 111 programmes in various villages of the state.
