PANJIM: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said Arabs may be funding terror with the cash received from India for oil import. He, however, said New Delhi hardly had any options.

He was speaking at the 109th AGM of the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) which was marked by Sandeep Bhandare taking over as the President.

Gadkari, the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways and Shipping, said the country was importing fuel worth Rs 7 lakh crore from Arab countries and “supporting their support for their benefits and terrorists and terrorist organisations”.

The minister said innovation was the future and it was important to have vision. He said he was a person who believed if the system was not working he would destroy it.

The minister said he liked honest people who can get things done and even liked dishonest people who can take the wrong decision but disliked honest people who did not like to take decisions. He said, “They could qualify for Padmashri and Padma Bhushan but were very good at dodging decisions.”

He also talked of the importance of using emerging and unconventional fuels and technologies backed by research. He urged the State to explore unconventional fuels like electricity, CNG, ethanol for public transport. He urged the government to have all buses on bio fuel given the excellent climate and the sensitivities of the people such technologies had to be looked at he said. The minister said the government was all for protecting the environment.

There were, he said, a microscopic group of people in the country that was against development and said the Captain of Ports had delayed for a year and a half thinking the Centre wanted to capture the river and take control. Around Rs 40 crore was kept aside for the dredging of the river and vision was important. He said that by developing a good cruise port in three years around 300 cruises could come to the state.