PANJIM: Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho hits back at his detractors on Wednesday for making false allegations against him and questioned why the Opposition did not wait in the Assembly to debate the Bhumiputra Bill.
Godinho ready to take collective responsibility being member of the cabinet but cannot accept the ‘specific’ charges levelled against him.
He said a false narrative is spread that he was after the bill in order to favour the Zuarinagar area. He pointed out that Zuarinagar falls in Cortalim constituency, of which he was an MLA for four terms but at present, for the last ten years he has been the MLA of Dabolim.
He claimed that Dabolim doesn’t have many migrants rather sitting MLA of Cortalim received four thousand votes from migrants from Cortalim so the question of who has benefited from migrant votes doesn’t fall on him but others.
He also explained that the migrants at Zuarinagar have been living there for 30-40 years, some even 50 years and have been working for the Birla Factory. Their children were born in Goa and have grown up here as well. He asked what about the children who have migrated abroad, they get citizenship of the countries their parents migrated too.
“Having said that, the allegation that I am favouring this area is not true as I represent Dabolim,” the Minister reiterated.
He emphasised that Goa is part of the Union of India and is a State that is dependent on neighbouring States.
He argued that an unnecessary controversy is being created and said that way the sentiments of people are being played with is wrong.
He admitted that the Bill, has some drawbacks and shortcomings. “In two months, at the Assembly, we will make these changes. We want to do what the people want,” said Godinho.
He emphasised that the opposition MLAs were very much there in the Assembly and were also aware that the bills were coming, as they were told during the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting.
“All this would not have happened had they (the opposition) waited, debated and asked for a house committee. Perhaps, the government would have listened to their voice and some of the bills could have gone to the house committee. They walked out without a debate to make politics out of it,” said Godinho.
He also referred to the power of social media that had amplified the criticism and said the government can deal with all this.
“You can criticise but don’t do it in such a way that twists things and it turns out to be poison for everyone,” said Godinho.
