Team Herald
PANJIM: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs on Friday threatened to expose the non-performance of their own party ministers in the forthcoming Assembly session.
Stating that just three of 12 ministers are performing, legislators made the threat at a meeting of the legislature wing of the BJP that was chaired by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, and was attended by Dy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza and other MLAs. Panchayat Minister Dayanand Mandrekar and Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar were reportedly not present.
Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral drew first blood at the meeting hitting out at the ministers stating they were acting like ministers of their constituencies. “They are acting as if they are only ministers of their constituencies and not Goa. It is due to this attitude of the ministers that the party may suffer in the forthcoming elections,” the legislator reportedly felt.
Other MLAs like Michael Lobo (Calangute), Glenn Ticlo (Aldona) and Subash Phaldesai (Sanguem) also joined in criticising the ministers.
Speaking to Herald the legislators said the performance of nine ministers is below par and that needs to be improved as this is election year. “We need to go to the people again. What will we tell them that our own ministers are not doing any work?” said a legislator.
They said they have threatened to expose the ministers in the Assembly. “We will expose our own ministers if they don’t fall in line before the Assembly session,” they said.
PWD engineers, including Principal Chief Engineer and GSIDC officials, were also called for the meeting to review the progress of works. The Chief Minister, sources said, instructed the officials to complete all administrative works of development projects during the monsoon so that works could be executed immediately thereafter.
