On the sidelines of his birthday celebrations held at the BJPparty office on Thursday, chief minister Manohar Parrikar said, “My dream forGoa is [a] contented Goa, not necessarily a very rich Goa, as Goa is alreadyrich.”
It was dual celebration joined by thousands of people, as onone side the CM was celebrating his 57th birthday and a day prior he wasaccorded with the prestigious politician of the year award by CNN-IBN.
Speaking to reporters Parrikar said that “To receive thataward is not [an] easy task as it has to go through four filtering processes…it’s not only [a] popular vote but it is [the] jury’s decision (which was headedby Soli Sorabji) and there were other prominent people in the jury who decided (besidesthe popular vote).
“It’s very difficult to get that and to be frank I [made] noeffort at all; in fact I did not know until someone told me that I am nominated;thus I am quite happy [and] it showed and proves my theory that peopleunderstand”.
He further said that “I don’t think [my] birthday as a bigday but see to it that it’s a day when you go back and eliminate the errors andgo for better delivery and output. The award gives me more enthusiasm todeliver more. Also I want to tell the media and people of Goa that my term isfive years and not nine months so let me deliver over a period of five yearsand the trend will be understood… [this] would be seen in two years time andnot in [a] short period of nine months.”
On the issue of mining, Parrikar said that “As far as thestate government is concerned, till the time we are convinced that everythingis proper we will not allow mining to start. He further indirectly charged [the]CEC in loud and clear words that ‘a panel working form Delhi sitting in [an] air-conditionedoffice does not know the problems faced by the people and cannot solve people’sproblem until they come out of their office and stay with the people at leastfor six month… until they understand what people face on ground zero.”
Commenting about the Mahadei water dispute, he said that“Although it was proved that the Karnataka government has contempt the courtorders, I cannot take law in my hands in Karnataka. However the state hasdecided to move to the court again with contempt petition.”
Talking about [the] mining aftermath and whether the samewould affect the state budget of 2013 Parrikar said that “Five years back thestate was receiving only Rs 25 crores from mining and why can’t that amount canbe taken back to that level by increasing the input from other sources? Hefurther added that “I have so many ideas and the same will be seen in days tocome.”
