Team Herald
VASCO: Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President Girish Chodankar along with other Congressmen including Sankalp Amonkar on Monday demanded that Urban Development Minister Milind Naik should be dropped from the Cabinet.
During a press briefing of Mormugao Block Congress Committee in association with Goa Pradesh Congress Committee, Chodankar informed that Naik has failed to obey law in three matters which included Nu Shi Naini Vessel, organising public meeting when Section 144 is in force due to Mhadei Jagor Protest and by trimming of a tree without obtaining the required permission from the concerned authority.
“We also demanded the government to withdraw the Section 144 imposed in areas which were sensitive to protests in the country. Today 53 days have passed no violent activities were reported in Goa. Therefore, it should have been removed by now, which has not happened yet,” Chodankar said.
He opined that the police and government machinery should have taken suo moto action against those speakers who spoke at the public meeting when the Section 144 was in force. Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, who is also a Home Minister, should have take action on this issue.
He also took potshot at Naik saying that initially he has said that vessel contained sludge and later after auctioning the same cargo it fetched Rs 5 crore worth revenue to the government, which has exposed Naik and this shows the duplicity of him.
Commenting on the recent public meeting held at Bogda, Chodankar claimed that the meeting was a show of strength and it was done as there are likely chances that Naik will be dropped from the Cabinet.
Further citing some issues, he revealed that the Congress had also urged for thorough inquiry into naphtha vessel issue which has not been done. No clarification from Naik or Chief Minister has come that how can naphtha turned into sludge initially and again the same sludge turned into naphtha?
“We should congratulate Sankalp Amonkar for bringing revenue of Rs 5 crore to government coffers by highlighting the Nu Shi Nalini issue. Credit of taking up this issue to State level solely goes to Amonkar,” he said.
On the concluding note, Girish stated this time if no action is taken in these issues then people will not respect and follow the law and people will not respect ministers too. Nobody is above the law and no citizen can break the law.
“Twice Naik has violated Section 144,” he claimed.
