The recent statement from Goa CM Laxmikant Parsekar that it will be difficult to get Special Status for Goa, sort of let ‘the cat out of the bag’. Is it not obvious, that Manohar Parrikar was actually fooling Goans on this key election promise, as we know that he has also fooled us on many other key issues. Surely Parrikar would also have been aware of the same a long time back. The question is why did his government not put other measures in place to protect Goa’s scarce land in now almost 3 years of BJP Rule in Goa?
He could have taken steps within his government’s scope of control to address the issue of Goa’s land by for examples (1) Real estate controls by way of taxing vacant non Goan properties or (2) Banning on sale of agricultural land to non-agriculturists or non Goans (at present in some other states).
As so very recently before his exit, he was showing all sort of nonsense to Goans, indicating that there are strong moves to approach the Centre for Special Status! He even had Narendra Modi make this as a pre-election promise. What happened now? Are Goans really naïve to accept such deceit from him?
Arwin Mesquita, Colva
