while joining the House to unanimously congratulate him for winning the ‘Kalpak Paryatan Mantri’ (Innovative Tourism Minister) award.
The State Legislative Assembly was unanimous in congratulating Parulekar for bringing in some innovative ideas in the tourism sector thereby continuing to be the backbone of the State economy at a time when the mining industry is at a halt.
The congratulatory motion was introduced by BJP MLA Siddharth Kunkolienkar. Chief Minister, Laxmikant Parsekar also praised his cabinet colleague and said that it was a joint initiative of Parulekar and Nilesh Cabral (chairman of Goa Tourism Development Corporation) that yielded fruit to various innovations in the sector.
Sardesai thanked Parulekar for making the sector the highest revenue generating sector. He however, appealed to the Minister to ensure that a proper State Tourism Policy is formulated to develop ‘Brand Goa’, wherein the tourism industry needs to belong to only Goans.
“At present, the tourism business is out of Goans’ reach. There has to be proper management. I am confident that the Minister will agree to my request,” he said.
In a similar line Lobo, who is always seen at loggerheads with the Tourism Minister said that it was during his tenure that the Government completed various tourism projects like multi-purpose car parking, Santa Monica jetty, tourism Bhavan, etc, – projects that were approved and tendered in 2008-09 by then government.
Lobo urged Parulekar to make additional efforts to promote Goa as an international tourist destination, as there is constant decline in foreign tourist arrivals in the State.
The legislative members-both ruling and opposition, where overwhelmed with this gesture and they appreciated the efforts of Sardessai and Lobo. Almost all BJP legislators, independents and few congress MLAs (present during the motion) congratulated him for the achievement.
