Say Mhadei, mining, har ghar jal, unemployment, coal pollution found no place in his speech
PANAJI
Flagging the absence of any reference to Mhadei, mining, har ghar jal, unemployment, coal pollution and issues of fishermen; the INDIA bloc leaders on Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of skipping issues that matter to Goans in his Saturday rally speech at Zuarinagar.
At a press conference held in Panaji, along with NCP State President Jose Philip D'souza and Goa Forward Party (GFP) General Secretary Durgadas Kamat, Congress vice-president Sunil Kawthankar said, Modi’s sole motto with his speech was to load it with false information and misguide Goans.
“If PM Modi was concerned about Goa then he should have spoken about the Mhadei issue. He failed to do it," Khawtankar said, adding that Union Home Minister Amit Shah has already said that Mhadei water is diverted by taking a nod from Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.
Blaming the BJP for closure of mining activities in the State, Kawthankar said for the last 12 years, they make promises to resume mining only at election time and later ignore it entirely even as thousands of dependents have lost livelihoods permanently.
“Shockingly even the Prime Minister didn’t utter a single word on Goa's mining connundrum," he said, adding that the 'double-engine government failed to restart mining.
Khawthankar also criticised Modi for failing to address the alarming unemployment situation in his rally speech even as he pointed out that the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE) has reported the situation to be three-times worse than the national average.
Pointing out that the venue of the PM's rally was in Mormugao, the taluka where people have suffered health and other issues due to the coal pollution but the issue found no mention.
Adani is a major player in the coal import business which may perhaps explain the silence on the issue, Khawthankar said.
Former minister and NCP State chief Jose Philip D'souza alleged that the Prime Minister tried to create fear among fishermen saying that Congress will grab boats of fishermen if they come to power.
“No government will do such a thing. He is trying to create fear among fishermen to grab attention and votes for his party,” D'Souza said, adding that fishermen are deprived of benefits of schemes and face economic hardship due to the stoppage of the VAT subsidy on diesel used in fishing boats.
