Team Herald
MARGAO: Goa Forward Party (GFP) president Vijai Sardesai on Sunday urged the people to ensure the victory of Fatorda Forward candidates so that the Team Goa plan can succeed to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) out of politics in the State.
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He was addressing a meeting at Murida organised for two candidates namely Custodio Dias and Shweta Lotlikar.
Dismissing former MLA and BJP leader Damodar alias Damu Naik’s charge that he has not brought about any development in the constituency, Vijai said iconic developmental projects have come up and cited the Opinion Poll Square, retail fish market, shifting of the St Francis Xavier chapel as some of them.
“Ninety-nine per cent of Fatorda has got sewerage connections besides underground cabling,” he said and added that he is preparing a ‘future ready Fatorda’ where all support to the farming community would continue.
Accusing the BJP of being a coal party, he alleged that the Urban Development Minister is involved in the business of transporting coal from Goa and claimed that they only want to make money and are not bothered about the environment or health of the people.
He cautioned that even mango production in Goa will be adversely affected if the government is allowed to go ahead with the Tamnar project for which thousands of trees will be cut thereby destroying the forest.
“We believe in development by consent and that is why no one stopped the work of road widening in my constituency whereas at present everywhere people are objecting to road widening,” he said.
Vijai alleged that Damu gave jobs only to his wife and brother during his tenure as an MLA and claimed that the BJP is an anti-Goan party.
He said even Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant has been on record stating that Goa is his workplace while his umbilical cord is attached to Maharashtra.
He said the government quarantined the seafarers returning to their homes and made them pay for the quarantine facilities but is not even testing those who come to Goa to organize rave parties because of which there is a surge in COVID cases now.
Stating that Goenkar – Ek Paul Ekcharachem had dared him to resign from the National Democratic Alliance which he said he did the very next day, Vijai swore that never in future will he align with the BJP and the separation is for lifetime.
He said Team Goa is a programme initiated by him through which all opposition forces will come together with the sole aim of keeping BJP out of politics in Goa.
He lamented that Prime Minister Narendra Modi instead of giving the COVID vaccines manufactured in India for Indians sent them to foreign countries to get nominated for the Nobel Prize.
He urged the people to receive whatever the BJP is giving them like speakers or even money but asked them not to sell their vote.
“The BJP has plenty of money from Adani and others so take whatever Damu is giving and if you have not got the speaker then ask the BJP candidate for it,” he said.
He said the BJP has deliberately not cleared the Sonsoddo dump even though the council had paid the government Rs 42 crore to clear it.
Sardesai said he would ensure that the old tinto area at Old market would be developed for promenade tourism.
Vijai urged all those present to vote for his candidates and especially appealed to the ST community to vote for Custodio.
“We have placed a person from the ST community as a candidate in a general ward and hence he has to be elected,” he said cautioning as otherwise ST community members will be elected only from the wards reserved for them.
GFP general secretary Mohandas Lolienkar lamented that Arthur D’Silva did not work for two terms as councillor and was seeking to get re-elected. He said his party opposed the anti-minorities policies of the BJP even when they were part of the government.
“The Goa Forward Party only supported the BJP to form the government, we did not join them,” he said and added that in the last five years not a single GFP councilor defected to any other party and remained united throughout their terms. Custodio Dias and Shweta Lotlikar urged the people to vote for them and promised a clean and stable council if elected. Freddy Travasso and Vikas Bhagat of Goenkar – Ek Paul Ekcharachem also spoke.
