Threatens to quit if BJP fails to grant demand after LS win
TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: As the date for the Lok Sabha elections inches closer, Forest and Environment Minister Alina Saldanha Saturday has upped the ante by setting the agenda in Goa, stating that she would resign if the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power and if thereafter special status is not granted to Goa by it.
Pointing out that at present the State government was with the BJP while the Centre was in the hands of the Congress-led government, Alina, wife of the founder of Goa’s Movement for Special Status, late Matanhy Saldanha said that this made it difficult to push for special status demand. However, after the elections if the BJP came to power at the Centre and with the same party governments both at the State and Centre it would be easier to push for the same.
The Goans for Dabolim Only, at its meeting held Saturday also warned the Centre not to take Goans for granted.
In a memorandum sent to the Prime Minister’s Office in June, some time after the assembly passed an unanimous resolution empowering the State government to seek special status under Article 371 of the Constitution, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had quoted Jawaharlal Nehru: “Drawing a parallel with French possessions in India, Nehru had acknowledged history and given Pondicherry and Goa an identity different from the rest of India. The Goans were assured that they shall have freedom to retain their unique identity in a manner wished by Goa’s people,” the memorandum said.
Parrikar had also said that the State was not seeking special status for financial benefits, but to preserve and protect its unique identity as large scale migration is diluting the Goan identity, apart from changing the demography.
Matanhy too was against financial doles arguing that special status would give a lot more benefits to Goa and the move to seek only a financial package to Goa as proposed by some of the political leaders is like opting to travel in a second class local train by rejecting a first class air-conditioned compartment of a super express train. According to him special status would entitle the State for tax rebates and tax holidays to attract non-polluting industries and give a fillip to the industrial sector.
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Matanhy in this article on his dream had said that if Goa gets the special status under Article 371, it would not have to come under the Gadgil-Mukherjee formula under which the Centre allots funds to States under Article 371 and would automatically qualify for a change in allocation of Central funds with 90 per cent funds coming as grants and 10 per cent as loan.
Also special status would enable Goa to claim a greater share of the earnings from ore exports especially since Goa and Goans have had to suffer ecological damage, disabilities and deaths due to accidents, and ill health due to pollution.
He was also of the opinion that price of the land and also in whose hand it was getting transferred could have been controlled and this would curb the mega-projects and control the real estate market that was presently catering to non-Goans wanting to set up second homes in Goa.
According to Matanhy, 60 per cent of Goan population comprises of Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Communities and so the State was entitled to special provision as enshrined in Article 371 to improve the socio-economic status of over 50 per cent of our population.
