MARGAO
As part of Samvidhan Bachao Abhiyan, the Congress will hold a protest meeting on April 29 at 4 pm at Azad Maidan.
The Samvidhan Bachao Abhiyan will provide a platform for Goans to raise their voices against the prevailing issues of "uncontrolled price rise of essential commodities, breakdown of law and order, rampant drug menace, atrocities against Dalits and women, and the unemployment crisis".
Congress leader Orville Dourado has said that Goans are struggling to stay afloat in an increasingly hostile environment that caters to everybody except the sons and daughters of the soil.
"For the people of Goa, there is no escaping the fact that our tiny State’s only relevance is to serve as a convenient thoroughfare for the transportation of polluting coal or for the setting up of a decadent ‘sin city’ where sleaze in the shape of gambling, casinos and other venal activities that go along with it form the fulcrum of a once-flourishing tourism industry that centred around Goa’s natural beauty and the warmth and charm of its hospitable people," he said.
Orville said the "serious crisis of governance" has left the community of Goans "defenceless" and at the mercy of every "opportunistic fortune hunter" who finds in Goa a conducive atmosphere to implement their dreams and schemes at the cost of the ordinary Goan.
"Why is Goa being marked for its rampant drug culture in the tourism industry? Why are our children gaining easy access to the psychotropic substances that suck them into a mire of misery? Why are beacons and monuments of Goan heritage, tradition and culture being trampled upon and destroyed? Bhoma, Old Goa, Dev Khapreshwar “ nothing seems to be sacred to this government," he questioned.
Adding to the woes of Goans, he said, subsidised land is handed over to large corporates in the guise of creating employment. However, the 12,000-odd young Goans who join the workforce each year still struggle to find jobs, as industries that are enjoying the facilities of Goa hold job fairs outside the state with impunity, he added.
