Panaji: Congress on Tuesday accused the BJP government of trampling on the livelihoods of Goans by displacing them from their place of business with plans to lease that land to non-Goans.
Briefing mediapersons, Congress spokesperson Agnelo Fernandes slammed the BJP government for demolishing about 60 shops of Goan people at Vagator on Monday. Although the land belonged to the Goa tourism development corporation (GTDC), the people were doing business there for the last 20 years with proper licenses from the village panchayat, Fernandes said. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Goa/BJP-govt-partial-to-non-Goans-says-Congress/articleshow/46113180.cms He said that reports indicate that the government wants to develop the land for tourism on public-private-partnership (PPP) model with a non-Goan person. But, there is no talk of rehabilitating the displaced Goans, Fernandes said, adding that there is a "conspiracy to give land to non-Goans." He blamed the government for earlier demolishing local people's businesses in Baga and said that even the Calangute GTDC property has been leased out to a non-Goan. He strongly condemned the government for displacing Goans and for venturing into PPP deals with non-Goans. Sunil Kawthankar also slammed the BJP government and particularly, former Panaji BJP MLA Manohar Parrikar, who despite being Panaji MLA for 20 years, failed to complete the Mala market and the Mala lake project. The lake is now a breeding ground for mosquitos causing malaria and dengue all around. He said hundreds of crores of taxpayers' money has been wasted on the Mala market which remains incomplete till date. The government is steeped in corruption, Kawthankar said. -- DEV BOREM KORUM Gabe Menezes.
