Team Herald
PANJIM: The main Liberation Day function at Campal on Saturday that had all the appearances of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) election campaign rally turned too much of an ordeal for some.
Among at least a dozen cadets, some fainted and others showed signs of strain, as Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar delivered a speech running into several pages and over half-an-hour-long extolling the government’s achievements. These cadets were soon served water by their colleagues.
While the heat struck them down, it was obvious that Parsekar too was feeling the heat as he kept wiping his forehead during his address.
Facing the platoons of Goa Police, Fire & Emergency Services, Home Guards, NCC and students, Parsekar reeled of a string of government welfare schemes, infrastructural projects and awards Goa has received after he had reviewed the parade and accepted the salute of the march past.
He boasted of over 1 lakh beneficiaries availing of the Griha Aadhar scheme and another 28,500 girls who received Rs 1 lakh each under the Laadli Laxmi scheme.
Notifying the Investment Promotion Board to bring in environment-friendly projects and creating jobs for locals, the upcoming electronic city at Tuem and IT Park at Chimbel, 25 percent subsidy under CM’s Rojgar Yojna, work on new Zuari Bridge to begin by January, while work of other bridges underway and to soon finalise bidder for Mopa airport, were some in a long list of works undertaken by the coalition ruling Parsekar mentioned in his speech.
