VASCO
In a fiery outburst, Mormugao MLA Sankalp Amonkar on Thursday accused his political rival and former MLA Milind Naik of deliberately sabotaging the Formula 4 racing event scheduled to be held in Mormugao.
He alleged that Naik, along with a few councillors and activists, staged protests for selfish motives linked to his personal property at Maimolem-Vasco.
Amonkar was speaking to reporters after attending a Shraddhanjali programme for former chief minister late Ravi Naik at his Sada office.
He said the protests that erupted in Bogda were “not people’s movement” but a “planned strategy” to pressurise the government into favouring Naik’s real estate interests.
“We had a golden opportunity to host an international Formula 4 event that could have brought Mormugao on the world map and created jobs for locals. Unfortunately, a few low-minded politicians misled the people and opposed the project for their own greed,” Amonkar said.
He directly named former Minister Milind Naik as the alleged mastermind behind the protests, accusing him of using his supporters and councillors to stall the event.
“Milind Naik has a 7,000 sq m property at Maimolem in Vasco, which now falls in the wetland zone. The entire protest was designed to pressure the government into removing his land from this classification. Once the land came out of the wetland area, he could have launched a major residential project of 100 to 200 flats for his personal benefit,” Amonkar alleged.
Amonkar further stated that the protestors’ plan had backfired.
“They failed on both fronts ” neither did their personal objective succeed, nor did Mormugao get to host the world-class event. The town lost a valuable opportunity because of selfish political games,” he said.
The MLA added that when public resentment against the project grew, he too informed Chief Minister Pramod Sawant that he would respect people’s opinion, following which the Formula 4 event was shifted elsewhere.
“Mormugao lost a golden opportunity to host the Formula 4 event due to the selfish motives of some low-minded politicians. The protest was never in the people’s interest ” it was about one man’s personal land,” Amonkar asserted.
Turning his criticism toward current issues, Amonkar said the same group was now attempting to misguide residents over the proposed hospital project at Sada.
“These crooked-minded politicians are telling people that the land should be used for a playground instead of a hospital. This is the same negative mindset that opposes every good development. I will be laying the foundation stone for the hospital project next month despite their false propaganda,” Amonkar said.
When contacted for a response to the allegations of Amonkar, former minister Milind Naik said he did not wish to comment in the matter.
