PANJIM: Reaching out to the people of
Chennai, whose homes and lives have been devastated by flash floods, Chief
Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on Tuesday announced a relief fund, and appealed to
his colleagues, including Ministers and MLAs to contribute a day’s salary
towards rehabilitation of the rain-ravaged State.
The announcement comes two days after
Congress slammed the BJP-led government for hosting a grand 60th
birthday celebration for Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on December
13. Congress had demanded that the government call off the celebrations.
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Addressing media persons, Parsekar
said, “No one needs to advise us or tell us what our duties are. Government is
aware of this.” He was indirectly hitting out at the Congress.
The Chief Minister appealed to people,
planning to attend Parrikar’s birthday celebration, not to spend money on
newspaper advertisements and on buying bouquets, but contribute the same amount
towards the ‘Chief Minister of Goa Chennai Relief Fund’. An account has been
opened with State Bank of India (SBI) bearing account number 35387615482 where
people can contribute. “I appeal to all Central and State government servants
to contribute one day’s salary towards the relief fund,” he said.
The government has set December 31 as
the deadline to collect the funds, which they expect to run into crores of
rupees.
Parsekar recalled how in the past the
government and BJP had raised funds for the people of Gujarat, Uttarakhand,
Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir, when they had been struck by natural calamities.
