Team Herald
PANJIM/MARGAO: Amid the ongoing debate over naming of the new international airport at Mopa, Aldona MLA Adv Carlos Alvares Ferreira and South Goa Member of Parliament Francisco Sardinha on Wednesday said that the airport should be named after Goa’s first Leader of the Opposition Dr Jack de Sequeira.
Ferreira also said that the new Zuari bridge could be named after Goa’s first Chief Minister Dayanand Bandodkar.
“During the last Assembly session, it was my desire to introduce a motion in the House to name Mopa Airport and the new Zuari bridge. Unfortunately, the Assembly session was cut short, and we didn’t have the time to introduce this motion. Mopa Airport could be named after Goa’s great leader Dr Jack de Sequeira, or even it could be named after Goa’s first Chief Minister Dayanand Bandodkar, or vice-verse. But either of these projects must be named after these two stalwarts”, Ferreira said.
“Dr Jack de Sequeira is considered the Father of the Opinion Poll. We should not forget that, and because of his efforts, Goa has remained what it is today and got its own identity,” he said.
At Margao, Sardinha told reporters that the contribution of Dr Sequeira towards keeping a separate entity and identity of Goa is immanence and cannot be sidelined.
“We have nothing much in Goa in the name of the Dr Jack Sequeira and hence on behalf of the people of Goa it is my request to the government to consider his name for the Mopa Airport,” he said.
A few days before BJP Spokesperson Savio Rodrigues had put forth similar demand and had said that the Mopa airport should be named after Dr. Jack Sequeira, wherein on the other hand MGP had also resolved to demand for naming the Mopa airport after Goa’s first chief minister Dayanand Bandodkar.
