MARGAO: Goa Forward Party chief Vijai Sardesai said his party is willing to adopt the Assonora football ground as the present government has failed to maintain the Assonora Sports Complex.
Speaking at the finals of the Assonora Football League, Sardesai said, “Football is in our blood. Former Chief Minister late Manohar Parrikar had declared football as a State Sport and had invested in football infrastructure.”
Sardesai said, “When Kiran Kandolkar was the Tivim MLA I had taken the initiative to construct this Assonora Sports Complex by spending lakhs of rupees, now that Kiran is no longer the MLA, the government has failed to maintain the sports ground.”
Sardesai said, “Football ground is a nursery for budding talent, our players dream with aspiration that from this nursery one day they will play for the ISL or even for Indian football team”.
“The Goa government’s priorities are different and that the State sport is now ignored by Dr Pramod Sawant. The government doesn’t even have Rs 7.5 lakh to pay for the PWD water bills for the ground, but has Rs 100 crore to spend in name of 60th Goa Liberation Day celebrations by getting artistes from outside Goa”, he charged.
Sardesai said, “Decades ago few people wanted Goa to merge with Maharashtra. Now the case is different, as citizens from Dodamarg are saying that they want to merge Dodamarg with Goa as their son of the soil has become the Chief Minister of Goa.”
Speaking on Liberation Day, Sardesai said, “Our freedom fighters fought for liberation, people like Dr Jack de Sequeira fought for the Opinion Poll and kept Goa for Goans but here we have a chief minister who wants to finish Goa and Goenkars. People of Goa are saying Goyant Kollso Naka, Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant says Goyant Kollso Zai and those opposing coal are termed as anti-nationals.”
“If we need to keep football alive, Goenkarponn alive, we need to resolve to fight unitedly for a second liberation and liberate Goa from Dr Pramod Sawant and his government,” he added.
GFP working president Kiran Kandolkar thanked the voters especially from Assonora for giving a lead of over 700 in the recently concluded ZP Polls.
“Last time during the tournament I had said that government had failed to maintain the ground. It’s shame that PWD has taken away the water meter over the non-payment of Rs 7.5 lakh bill by the Sports Department. Today I appeal to the government especially the Sports Department that if they can’t maintain this ground, Assonora panchayat or Assonora Comunidade or even Goa Forward Party is ready to adopt and maintain the ground for the future of football players and budding talent,” said Kandolkar.
Newly-elected Zilla Panchayat member Kavita Kandolkar thanked everyone for the resounding victory and assured the villagers of Assonora that she would work towards fulfilling all the commitments she made during the polls.
