Upset with the remarks made by Godinho in the floor of the House on Tuesday, wherein he indirectly accused her of not completing the Kala Bhavan project despite giving an assurance a year ago, Alina asked Godinho why the same project remained incomplete for eight years when he was representing Cortalim constituency.
“I would like to ask Godinho, and he should also answer to the people of Goa, why he could not complete the Kala Bhavan for eight years when there were funds for it. What right does he have to ask me why it is not completed? I have no doubt that the project will be completed and I’m pursuing the same. But there are other projects, including a hospital in Cansaulim, that take priority as they are more important than the Kala Bhavan,” Saldanha told reporters at her office in Cansaulim on Thursday.
While replying to a statement made by Godinho on the Special Status issue, Saldanha said, “Godinho said that Special Status is someone’s husband’s dream. I want to know whose husband he is referring to. It is a fact that my late husband had started the movement for Special Status for Goa in 2008, but till date I have never referred to the demand for Special Status as my husband’s dream, as said by Godinho on the floor of the House on Thursday.”
She further said, “I would also like to remind Godinho that on April 15, 2013, the House unanimously passed a resolution to demand Special Status for Goa. This same MLA, who gave a sermon explaining why Goa should be given Special Status, has now suddenly changed his stand. This makes me feel that he just takes a stand because that is the popular stand and changes it the moment it is not popular.”
Regarding Saldanha’s allegation that he had changed his stand on Special Status for Goa, Godinho said, “I never changed my statements. In the past and even today I have been saying that we should peruse special category or status of some type, wherein we can get enough money to develop class infrastructure to make Goa as a model state. However, there are people in the House who are fooling Goans in name of Special Status.”
