SATURDAY, MAY 18, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: Aam Aadmi Party Convenor Elvis Gomes on Monday visited the Anti Corruption Branch of the Vigilance Department at Altinho, Panjim and deposed before the Investigation Officer urging him to take cognisance of statements made by ministers which were reported widely, stating “all 40 MLAs in Goa are corrupt”.
He was accompanied by AAP office bearers Pradeep Padgaonkar, Sunil Signapurkar, Valmiki Naik, and Bruno Fernandes among others.
Briefing newspersons after coming out of the ACB, Gomes said, “It needed to be recalled that two ministers Manohar
Ajgaonkar and Michael Lobo in the recent past had been trading charges and counter charges of corruption against one another in the recent past, which had led one to state that all 40 MLAs in the State were corrupt.”
He said that AAP had felt that these ministers were challenging the very system of which they were a part, through their unwarranted utterances and hence had referred the matter to the ACB urging it to take cognisance of the statements and proceed with the investigations to unearth corruption.
“I have given my statement standing by what we had said. The ministers are themselves part of the government. Open admission of corruption by a minister who has taken oath to uphold the Constitution of India and rule of law cannot be ignored and now it is upto the investigation agency to extract the truth about the extent of corruption indulged in by the ministers, MLAs and persons associated with them,” said Gomes.
Responding to a query from waiting newspersons, Gomes said that the Lokayukta which is also an anti corruption body had recently castigated the State government by stating that only God could save Goa.
“This goes to show that Goa is ranking high in corruption index in the country, eating into the resources meant for the welfare of the common man. AAP will give autonomy to such bodies as ACB and kept it free from the pulls and pressures of the political executive,” said Gomes.
