MAPUSA
While Congress MLA Aleixo Reginaldo’s mid-night meeting with BJP State observer, Devendra Fadnavis is in the realms of speculation, Congressmen in Mapusa, on Tuesday, went out of their way to defend their action of meeting BJP MLA, Michael Lobo, who is a minister.The Congressmen said Lobo was very accommodating and helped them to get their files moving.
Congress leader in Mapusa, Sudhir Kandolkar said Ports Minister Michael Lobo was very approachable and entertained everyone who went to meet him with their work.
“Michael Lobo is a minister of entire Goa and not only of BJP. I have good relationship with him because whenever I approach him with people’s work he gets it done,” said Kandolkar, who had unsuccessfully contested the by-election in Mapusa on Congress ticket against BJP’s Joshua D’Souza.
Seconding him was Mapusa Congress Block President, Shashank Narvekar who said that anyone could meet a minister of the State.
“Whenever we go to any minister…say may be a PWD minister for some work…it does not mean we are going to meet a BJP minister to get our work done. He is a PWD minister of the State. He has to take care of every constituency within the state of Goa,” Narvekar rationalised.
“Similarly, we go to Michael Lobo with our work because he is a minister of the State. What is wrong in approaching him? When he’s holding that office it is his duty to take care of every citizen of the State. So repeatedly raising the issue of Sudhir bai going to meet Lobo is not right,” he added.
Narvekar, who is a councilor in Mapusa, said they were forced to meet Lobo because the local MLA failed to take up developmental works in their wards.
“If the MLA can take up our pending works and process our files then we don’t have to go to anyone. The problem is that the MLA is not doing it and therefore we have to go to someone else,” he said, defending their action of meeting minister Lobo.
Coincidentally, Lobo had recently said that Sudhir Kandolkar was a winnable candidate for Mapusa constituency.
Off late, Kandolkar has often been seen in the company of Lobo at several social events.
