PORVORIM: Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai on Monday wondered if the tourism department was run by comic sense or common sense. Speaking in the Assembly, he criticised the tourism department for putting up advertisements at Times Square in New York by spending Rs 1.97 crore on a billboard on Times Square New York at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on a visit there.

Times Square has one of the most expensive real estate in the entire world.

Speaking on demands for grants for tourism, printing and stationary and information technology, Sardesai said, “(It is not clear) whether there is a comic sense or common sense in ministry. There is a place called Times Square in New York. There on June 22, 2023, a billboard was set up at cost of Rs 1.97 crore. There is nothing which states that we should advertise at that time as Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be there. What does it mean?”

“The advertisement had the faces of the Chief Minister and Tourism Minister. Was it to show to the Prime Minister that in New York also there are his people? That is the time when summer vacation begins in America. Does it mean that people will see the advertisement and come to Goa directly? What happens in India at that point of time. It rains cats and gods. In Goa nothing is left,” he said.