MARGAO: Leader of the Opposition Yuri Alemao on Tuesday demanded that the government extend the deadline for DSSY beneficiaries to link their Aadhaar Cards with bank accounts till March.
He accused the BJP government of being insensitive by always coming up with proposals causing harassment and torture to needy and poor. He said that the government must hurry up in releasing the benefits to the needy and poor on time.
He was reacting to the circular issued by the Social Welfare Department making it mandatory for DSSY beneficiaries to link their Aadhaar Cards with the bank accounts within three months.
He said, “The insensitivity of the BJP government towards needy and poor stands exposed. The government issued a circular to compel senior citizens, women and others to go to banks and link their Aadhaar cards within three months coinciding with the festive season. Why so much of a hurry? Extend time till March.”
He said that there were outstanding dues of various schemes for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBC and others. Even students were not given their financial assistance in time.
The new circular appears to be an attempt by the government to buy time to release funds to the beneficiaries as the State treasury is empty. These gimmicks are now well understood by the Goans, Yuri claimed.
Meanwhile, Yuri alleged that the Investment Promotion Board (IPB) is a scam initiated by the BJP government to handover prime Goan land to capitalists.
He charged that these projects have become an ATM machine for the BJP, as he challenged the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to release data of all projects cleared by IPB till date.
Reacting to Chief Minister’s statement after the 35th IPB Board meeting announcing seven projects cleared for a proposed investment of Rs 180 crore and employment potential of 1208, the LoP slammed the BJP Government for giving false figures to mislead Goans.
Reality of IPB is the government gave away 12.91 lakh square metres of land to IPB projects for just Rs 726.43 crore investment as against proposed investment of Rs 4,637.50 crore and only 1037 jobs as against proposed jobs of 17,525 from 2018 till June 2023, he claimed.
He further claimed that only 14 projects out of 85 are completed. Only 55 Goans got employment till date in these projects. This data is only of the last four years and just a tip of the Iceberg.
IPB has become a single window for Ccorruption as the IPB Board has taken over powers of issuing conversion sanads from the Revenue Department. Technical clearances are given directly bypassing TCP Department and construction licences are issued by IPB Board sidelining panchayats and municipalities, Yuri charged.
