VASCO: Mormugao block BJP leaders have accused Congress leader Sankalp Amonkar of playing politics when the State is traumatised due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Briefing the press here, the BJP leaders said that instead of playing politics, Amonkar could have gone with them and submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Collector objecting to setting up of quarantine unit at harbour.
Block BJP President Sanjay Satardekar accused Amonkar of creating confusion, during a press briefing at Panjim, by claiming that Covid-19 positive patients would be housed at the quarantine unit at harbour. “This caused unnecessary fear among locals,” he said.
Later, MMC Councillor Murari Bandekar said that when the Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat tweeted to assure the Sada locals that no Covid-19 patient would be housed at the quarantine unit, Amonkar should not have held a press briefing and spread false information.
Leo Rodrigues, another MMC councillor, opined that if Amonkar was so concerned about the safety Headland Sada residents, then, “he should have stayed back with us and educated locals about Coronavirus.”
“Sankalp could have easily come with us and could have given memorandum asking to cancel the quarantine unit from the Harbour on Thursday. Instead, he chose to address a press conference in Panji,” Rodrigues added.
When contact, Amonkar denied that he was politicising the quarantine unit issue. He pointed out that the local BJP legislator was not informed by the BJP government who brought the unit at harbour.
He maintained that at the press briefing in Panjim he only highlighted the objections of locals to the quarantine unit at Harbour, which, he said, is a densely populated area.
