PANAJI
Former tourism minister Babu Ajgaonkar has dared Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte to conduct an inquiry into allegations of a scam in the beach cleaning project.
"Beaches are clean and that is why many tourists have come to Goa. I dare tourism minister to conduct an inquiry in the beach cleaning project and prove there is scam,” said Ajgaonkar, while claiming he had done his best during his tenure as tourism minister.
During the tenure of Ajgaonkar as minister, the government had awarded the contract to Drishti Lifesaving Services to clean beaches. The opposition had alleged a scam at the time and claimed it a multi-crore contract was made without following procedures.
Then Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president Girish Chodankar had alleged that the contract allotted to the firm was renewed nine times between December 2018 and July 2019.
“Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte is smart and I will give full support to him to take tourism ahead.”
Meanwhile, Ajgaonkar said he is ready to contest the Lok Sabha elections as a BJP candidate for South Goa, if the party were to consider his candidature.
“The party gave me the ticket for Margao constituency at the last moment, otherwise I would have done much better the recent assembly elections. If I get five years to work in Margao constituency, I can confidently win in the constituency.”
"There are many people with me from the constituency. I was a councillor and later, my brother and his daughter were councillors of Margao Municipal Council,” said Ajgaonkar.
He expressed confidence that BJP would win both seats at the Lok Sabha elections.
