Team Herald
MARGAO: South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha, assuring to take up with the Defence Ministry the issue of permitting a Mass to be celebrated at Anjediv Island once a year, has castigated the State government for the reservations of the Zilla constituencies and appealed to the chief minister to take the Mhadei issue seriously.
Briefing media persons, he said, “The Catholic Association of Goa has asked him to permit them to celebrate Mass at the Church at Anjediv Island on the day of the feast and admitted neither the church authorities nor the bishop raised this matter with him.”
“As a representative of the people, for me the Catholic Association of Goa is good enough and I did discuss the matter with Shripad Naik, who is the Minister of State for Defence,” said Francisco Sardinha adding that Shripad had expressed his inability to do anything.
“Shripad informed me that the naval authorities have banned entry to the island since 2004 and I shall now take up the matter with the Defence Minister if necessary to try and allow people to visit the island on February 2, 2021 to celebrate the feast,” he said.
Francisco said that only one vessel could be permitted to go to the island and all boarding that vessel can be frisked and checked to ensure that they do not carry any cameras.
MHADEI: Pointing out that Mhadei is the lifeline of Goan, he appealed to the Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant to challenge Karnataka’s claim that Goa is wasting the water as it goes to the sea by demanding that a study be undertaken during the dry season.
“During monsoons water will naturally go to the sea but one has to check how much water goes to the sea during the dry season and therefore a study on this should be demanded,” he said asking the chief minister to take up this matter seriously.
He opined that it was unfortunate that Karnataka continued with the constructions to divert the water of Mhadei even though the matter was pending before the Mhadei Water Tribunal and disclosed that he had raised up this matter with the Union Minister.
ZP POLLS: Francisco Sardinha while pointing out that nearly 60 per cent of the seats for ZP elections are reserved said, “It just exposed the lack of application of mind and opined that actually reservation should not go beyond 50 per cent.”
He pointed out that while some constituencies are reserved for three consecutive terms, Velim Constituency holds the record of being reserved for OBC for the fourth consecutive term and opined that actually reservation should at the most be for two consecutive terms.
MAHATMA GANDHI: Francisco Sardinha said the 150 years of Mahatma Gandhi should have been observed in a better manner instead of merely recommending a walkathon or cycle rally of 150 kms.
“Actually programmes should have been organised in every school and college explaining Gandhi’s ideology of tolerance and non-violence which is extremely relevant in present times when violence is sought to be an answer to every problem.
Reacting to the protests against CAA he asked the government to avoid a civil war in the country and regretted the violence in New Delhi on Monday. “The protest should have been peaceful,” he said.
