TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has reneged on his promise to inquire into the water supply scam that he himself threatened to expose when he was Leader of opposition, Goa Su-raj Party has alleged, saying that the State is losing Rs 67-crore per year on scam-related losses in Bardez taluka alone.
Addressing a press conference Monday, new spokesperson for the party Savio Rodrigues said that they have uncovered a scam in which 2.23 crore cubic metres of water was unaccounted for in Bardez taluka alone, which they alleges is being siphoned off to corporate and hotels for free.
“In the financial year 2012-13 the total water supplied to Bardez taluka was 3.76 crore cubic m2. In addition 2.54 crore cubic m2 is supplied from various bore well schemes. But only 1.56 crore cubic m2 of water reached the consumers,” Rodrigues told media persons adding that he was aware that there is a “nexus between the corporate world and the government.”
They have threatened to expose the nexus if Parrikar does not begin to act against the perpetrators of the nexus. “In simple words, out of every 2.5 litre supplied by the government, only 1 litre reaches the consumer and 1.5 litres disappear into thin air. We asked the PWD to justify the losses to which they replied that they were not answerable to us. Now we ask the same question to the government of Goa,” Rodrigues said.
He said that the loss to the government was to the tune of Rs 67 crore per year which he said he calculated at the commercial consumer rate of Rs 30 per cubic metre. The scam is going on for several years and has cost the government hundreds of crores of rupees in revenue losses.
