Team Herald
MARGAO: Congress MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco while condemning the government decision to pay Rs 300 crore to the SEZ promoters, preferred to remain silent on taking the criminal investigations into land allotment to its logical conclusion as it involved his party leaders.
“How can I say anything against my party leaders,” he said, but clarified that he was always opposed to the SEZ. He said that he would react only when some action is taken against his party leaders.
“Let the Leader of Opposition and GPCC President ask for action against Vishwajit Rane and I shall support them,” he said when it was pointed out that Vishwajit was no longer a member of the Congress Party.
It may be recalled that Pratapsing Rane, Digambar Kamat along with Vishwajit Rane and Babu Kavlekar were alleged to be involved in allotting land to the SEZ promoters which Manohar Parrikar who was in the opposition then had said was a Rs 400 to Rs 500 crore scam of which around Rs 50 crore were paid to the middleman.
Referring to this statement of Parrikar, Aleixo said the chief minister is rubbing shoulders with those opposing SEZ including late Matanhy Saldanha and wondered how he could now suddenly consider a settlement.
“The High Court had found illegality and when the matter was pending in the Supreme Court what was the need for the government to opt to pay the promoters such huge amount?” he asked.
He said first opposing and then siding with people doing something bad has become a modus operandi of the BJP government and said the same thing happened with Mhadei river diversion issue and also the battle to remove casinos from River Mandovi.
He also questioned the logic in paying SEZ promoters Rs. 300 crore when the SEZ promoters had paid only Rs. 100 crore for the land that was allotted to them and argued that the decision to pay was against the thousands of Goans who had relentlessly fought against SEZ in the past.
