Team Herald
PANJIM: The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) has demanded Tourism Minister Manohar (Babu) Ajgaonkar’s resignation after two tourists died of drowning, incidents that occurred in view of strike by Drishti lifeguards.
“Goa has witnessed two deaths off the beaches in Goa in a week’s time which has exposed the collapse of beach safety and lifeguarding services. Nobody from the government has uttered a word even after the two unfortunate deaths. The tourism minister should resign immediately. If not, Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant should sack him for his failure to provide safety and security to the tourists in Goa and for tourism minister’s involvement in corruption and irregularities in tourism department,” Spokesperson Swati Shet Kerkar said in a press statement released on Sunday.
Pointing out to the “conspicuous silence of the chief minister on Rs 141 crore scam awarded to M/s Drishti Life Savings Pvt Ltd”, the party stated that it has further substantiated their claim about the scam in the contract.
“The revelations made by the striking lifeguards about the ill treatment meted out to them, lack of facilities provided and non-availability of basic gadgets like walkie talkies etc have vindicated the stand taken by the Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat, who had drawn the attention of the House in the last Assembly session wherein he had clearly pointed that ‘all is not well’ with Drishti,” she said.
The party also demanded that chief minister scrap the appointment of Shrikant Ajgaonkar as Director of Goa Tourism Development Corporation and Goa Football Development Council.
Several lifeguards along the Sinquerim-Calangute beach stretch are on strike protesting the delay in payment. The government that is due to pay Rs 12 crore to the company made partial payment after the latter issued a statement that delay in payments by government for last eight months has put severe financial strain on the company.
Drishti claimed it has rescued 32 persons in the last 72 hours.
