MARGAO: Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President Girish Chodankar on Wednesday alleged that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant is a co-accused in the mining lease renewal case.
Chodankar said that a co-accused has no right whatsoever to comment on the Lokayukta and condemned Sawant for saying that the Lokayukta directions are mere recommendatory.
Hearing a complaint lodged by Goa Foundation director, Claude Alvares over the renewal of mining leases, the Lokayukta observed that none of the agencies in Goa are credible and recommended that the investigations be handed over to the CBI.
“In fact other investigations have been botched up in Goa like the beach cleaning scam, Panjim pay parking scam and the note book scam where BJP functionaries were involved,” Chodankar said.
He added that in the mining lease renewal matter, former Chief Minister (late) Manohar Parrikar has to be party and that going by former CM Laxmikant Parsekar’s statement that he went ahead with it as government is a continuous process, he (Parsekar) too should be a party.
“But what is more significant is that Parsekar now says that even Pramod Sawant influenced him to renew the mining leases,” he said adding that this makes the chief minister an accused in the matter.
He demanded that the CBI probe this matter thoroughly and book the culprits.
