When it comes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, criticism of no sort will not be tolerated.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, for instance, didn’t take it lightly when a journo queried him on the expenditure the State would incur for the Sunday visit.
Modi is expected to take a tour of the newly built Mopa International Airport before he goes through the formality of ‘inaugurating’ it although it will actually begin functioning about a month from now. He is also expected to address the valedictory function of the World Ayurveda Congress at Campal from where he will virtually inaugurate three projects -- one in Goa, another in Uttar Pradesh and a third in Delhi.
But when Sawant was asked the costs for the arrangements he shot back: “Why are you worried about the one or two crores spent on the visit? The Centre has gifted this Rs 300-crore Ayurveda institute to Goa. Facilities on par with the AIIMS will be available to Goans at minimum costs. Think of it.”
The All India Institute of Ayurveda at Dhargal, which is the Goa project Modi will virtually inaugurate, is built at a cost of Rs 302.46 crore on 50 acres of land. It has provision for 210 undergraduate student seats and 56 post-graduate seats in Ayurveda education, besides a 250-bedded hospital and research center, all at zero cost to Goa except the land.
Now we know, Sawant ‘ko gussa kyon atha hai’.
