Lusofonia pass fiasco termed as ticket scam

TEAM HERALD

teamherald@herald-goa.com

PANJIM: Sports Minister Ramesh Tawadkar was grilled by ruling and opposition benches on Friday over non availability of passes for the Lusofonia games held in Goa in January. 

Independent MLA Vijai Sardesai even categorized the entire pass fiasco as yet another ‘ticket scam’ in the state.

Tawadkar came under pressure during Question Hour, leading Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to intervene after he was accused of unfair distribution of Lusofonia games passes to MLAs, local governing bodies and public at large.

Pointing to the government reply tabled on the floor of the House, Sardesai said that over 11,000 printed tickets or passes were wasted by the government, depriving several thousand sports lovers, who were seen either agitating or accusing government for non availability of passes. “While 11,000 passes were wasted, the government officers had denied passes to several thousand stating that the same were already sold,” he informed the House. Sardesai said that he had boycotted the opening and closing ceremonies as part of the protest.

As per the reply, total 18,939 and 18,387 passes were printed for the opening and closing ceremonies. Another 15,900 pass were printed for the football match finals.

Sardesai further pointed out that in yet another fiasco, people having passes were denied entry during opening and closing ceremonies and for the football match finals. “People with passes were seen agitating outside the stadium gates for being refused entry. This is yet another ticket scam…duplicate tickets were printed and sold,” he alleged.

Sardesai was supported by MGP MLA Lavoo Mamledar and Goa Vikas Party MLA Caetano Silva who targeted Tawadkar for unfair distribution of passes.

As the sports minister could not cope up with the questions from the opposition, Chief Minister intervened to say that since many of the seats remained empty, in spite of the distribution of passes, spot decisions were taken to allow the general public to occupy the empty seats, as per the situation prevalent at that particular point of time, especially during the football finals.

Amidst the heated exchange, Parrikar censured Sardesai: “Why are you complaining…there have been no complaints from the public?” The total expenditure incurred on the infrastructure as well as the organization of the Lusofonia games have been Rs 267.62 crore so far.