Team Herald
PANJIM: The Congress party is all set to release its “people centric” election manifesto for Goa on Monday, with major focus on employment, youth, environment and conservation. The manifesto will be released by party’s young leader and Member of Parliament (MP) Jyotiraditya Scindia.
The Congress party has fielded 37 candidates while supporting Atanasio Monserrate in Panjim and Rohan Khaunte in Porvorim, where the party failed to find a viable winning candidate. The party was the last to announce its candidates and hence is left with limited time in hand for campaigning.
All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and Goa desk in-charge Digvijay Singh said that party has drafted Goa centric, people centric manifesto which will focus on crucial issues of employment generation, protection and conservation of environment, proper planning, etc. “We are going to promise the people things that we will be able to deliver, not something that we can’t,” he said.
“We don’t want to be called as U-turn sarkar (government),” Singh commented.
Ban on casino culture, is something that will find priority on the party’s election manifesto, as the State unit led by President Luizinho Faleiro has repeatedly announced to put a complete ban on the industry. The party had alleged that under the BJP, Goa has become a sin city of India with tourists arriving here for casinos, drugs and prostitution.
The manifesto will also speak about measures to improve the financial position of the State, which according to Reserve Bank of India (as quoted by Congress) is going under debt trap.
“Five years, down the line, it is for all to see that the twin promises of the BJP have reduced to pure betrayals and resulted into worst administration, which Goa has ever seen or witnessed,” AICC secretary Girish Chodankar said.
He pointed out how the ruling coalition partners MGP has castigated its allied BJP governance for its terrible performance by stating that Laxmikant Parsekar government has regressed Goa by 10 years.
“What more certification does anyone need on the performance of BJP in last five years? Its own alliance partner has certified it,” he said.
The party had in October, last year released strongly-worded indictment against the BJP government charging it for the MoI mess, iron ore mining closure, failure to finalise the Regional Plan and shift off-shore casinos out of River Mandovi and creating unemployment.
The indictment faulted the Laxmikant Parsekar government on over 25 different counts. Prepared following a series of meetings by Congress leaders, it says the BJP government in Goa has been ridden with ‘scams and U-turns’.
“The BJP-led State government’s tenure is writ largely by their ideology of vendetta, vengeance, intolerance and hatred. While embarking on this deplorable and regressive ideology, BJP has only ensured the complete collapse of the State economy through execution of their skewed model of governance,” the Congress said.
The Congress has held BJP responsible for stopping of mining , paving way for large scale destruction of Coconut trees through amendment to Trees Act, making Goa a sin city through drugs and prostitution and casinos, failure to create 50,000 jobs as assured and mess in Medium of Instruction (MOI) issue.
, no RP, economic mess, intolerance and insensitivity, failure on healthcare front, corruption and other counts.
