PANAJI
GPCC President Amit Patkar advised Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte to focus on streamlining his department instead of intruding on jurisdiction of other departments as in the case of formulating a jetty policy for the State.Patkar said there is chaos and no system in place to monitor activities at several tourist locations in the State leading to illegal activities and fatal incidents pointing out to the incident at the Dudhsagar Waterfalls where a bridge collapsed and 40 tourists were rescued.
“Tourism Minister should focus on putting his department in order before intruding into the scope of other departments. Jetty Policy can be handled by Captain of Ports or River Navigation Department. Let the tourism department perform its own duties responsibly,” Patkar said.
He also asked Khaunte to throw light on what happened in the matter of the 'Beach Cleaning Scam' which he himself had exposed in the Goa Legislative Assembly when in the Opposition.
Patkar also said that there were illegalities being committed on Goa's beaches and other tourist locales.
"Illegal home stay businesses have flourished with the blessing of people in power. Tourism officials are involved in event management scams and there is large-scale corruption in marketing and promotional events," Patkar alleged, urging Khaunte to set his priorities right before trying to please 'crony capitalists' with the jetty policy.
'Big sharks including politicos involved in land grabbing'
MAPUSA: Congress leader Vijay Bhike on Saturday said ministers have forgotten their role in the government and instead of working for the people of Goa they have become BJP’s clerks.
Bhike also said that land mafia was operating in the State which were selling land to outsiders.
“All these ministers have become BJP’s clerks. They are not ministers of Goa. They do just clerical work. They will make statements about the laws and will then interpret it the way they want. Instead of trying to understand the problems of Goans, they are making life more difficult for the common man by imposing additional taxes,” Bike said.
The Congress leader was addressing a news conference along with North Goa District Congress Committee General Secretary Pranav Parab and Secretary Sachin Kitlekar in the Congress office in Mapusa.
Continuing, Bhike said ministers were at loggerheads with each other over different issues and there was absolutely no coordination among them.
“The government is not running the way it should run in a democracy. The Art and Culture minister speaks one language while the PWD minister counters him with his own assessment of the law, exposing the fissures in the cabinet,” he said.
He also said that the BJP-led government had only one agenda on its mind and that was to finish the opposition.
“They have bought over MLAs and now they are interfering in panchayats and municipalities too. We have seen in the ongoing Zilla Panchayat election the BJP has forced a candidate in South Goa to withdraw from the fray by luring him with money,” he alleged.
The former North Goa District Congress Committee chief said that the SIT set up in the land grabbing scam has so far only scratched the surface and the big sharks including some politicians in the current government were involved in the scam.
“Land mafia is operating in Goa and it has come into existence in the last 12 years with the BJP government in power. This land mafia is illegally selling land to outsiders,” he said.
He said a government official was found involved in the land scam but there was complete silence on the complicity of ruling politicians in the scam.
“If mamlatdar is involved then a minister will also be involved. The minister must have instructed him to do it. The good thing is that the mamlatdar is arrested but does the buck stop there?” Bhike questioned.
North Goa District Congress Committee General Secretary Pranav Parab slammed the government for recently increasing stamp duty on properties in the State which will put burden on Goans who want to buy properties to build a house.
“The move will make it difficult for ordinary Goans to buy properties as the outsiders will not mind the hike in the rate. This is an anti-Goan move,” Parab said.
He also censured the government for raising taxes on basic necessities making life difficult for the common man.
