Team Herald
PANJIM: Gearing up for the 2017 elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has initiated the process to draft its poll manifesto which will focus on making Goa a model State.
At a manifesto committee meeting Tuesday morning, chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza, BJP decided to approach the people seeking suggestions for the manifesto. The committee has also decided to launch a manifesto website to seek online suggestions.
“Our theme for the manifesto is ‘Make Goa a Model State’. Special status is equivalent to model state,” Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, who is member of the committee, told media persons after the meeting. “We want to give a people-centric manifesto. People suggestions would be crucial in transforming Goa into a model State,” he added.
Parsekar said that party cadres will travel to all panchayats next month to gather suggestions from the people. “We managed to fulfill 90 percent of the 2012 poll promises. Wherever required administrative decisions have been taken, infrastructural works are complete while a few are in the pipeline. The balance promises will be fulfilled during our next tenure,” he said.
While BJP claims to have achieved 90 percent of its manifesto promises, prime issues like shifting of offshore casinos out of River Mandovi, finalisation of Regional Plan 2021, Special Status, amicable solution to Medium of Instruction (MoI) remained unfulfilled.
While BJP aims to make Goa a model State, Congress is also working on its manifesto on similar lines with the focus to draft a Goa centric plan. The Congress election committee too has decided to seek public suggestions
to draft its manifesto.
