PANJIM: AAP General Secretary Pradeep Padgaonkar on Wednesday said that the order by Goa Lokayukta to file an FIR against former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar and others comes as no surprise, as the illegally extended leases were already cancelled by the Supreme Court.
He said that the order of Lokayukta reconfirms the extent to which the elected Government of Goa is controlled by the mining lobby. “Successive governments in Goa, be it BJP or of Congress, have been birthed in five-star hotels owned by mining lobby heavyweights, for obvious reasons,” he said.
Padgaonkar said that despite umpteen opportunities to reform the mining industry under the guidance of the Supreme Court judgements, the BJP Government (and before it, the Congress government) continued to make illegal decisions in favour of its mining lobby friends, and because of this complete capitulation by elected leaders, today not only are the mining dependents suffering but also the State is in serious financial crunch.
Padgaonkar reminded that AAP, free from the clutches of the mining lobby, had promised in its 2017 manifesto to immediately set up a Goa Mineral Development Corporation.
“Had this been done by the Goa government in 2012 itself, today the government wouldn’t be finding itself at the mercy of high interest loans and meagre casino revenue to fulfill even basic requirements,” he said.
