l Vijai dashes off letter to Parrikar l Serves May 24 deadline on GSIDC to re-start work l Threatens to take to streets with constituents
TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
The brief honeymoon between Chief Minister, Manohar Parrikar and Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai seemed to have finally ended. While the Fatorda road widening project saw a thaw in relations between the Chief Minister and the Independent MLA, the incomplete road now threatens to bring the duo face-to-face, with the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) not even taking up work on the three religious chapels as per the plan.
In fact, with the work on the road project grounded over the last two months, since the Election Code of Conduct came into force on March 4 last, the Fatorda MLA has set May 24 deadline to Parrikar’s Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) to re-start the work or else threatened to take to the streets with the constituents of Fatorda to protest against the delay.
Sardessai in a letter dashed off to the Chief Minister, Manohar Parrikar, who also heads the GSIDC as its Chairman, said he would be compelled to treat the matter as a clear case of partisan attitude by the Chief Minister in not carrying out works in his constituency as he does not belong to the ruling combine if the work does not start by May 24.
He has hoped that the stoppage of works is not because of any petty political considerations, especially since he did not support the BJP candidate in the just concluded Lok Sabha polls.
“I am confident that as a responsible chairman of the GSIDC, you will now allow your actions to be influenced by party matters. However, the timing of the stoppage and the fact that the work, which was ongoing, has come to a standstill from the day the Model Code of Conduct was enforced, leads me to believe that the Lok Sabha elections could have influenced the matter”, Vijai stated in the letter.
Saying that work on the project has been practically nil over the last month-and-half, the Fatorda MLA said the work seems to have been abandoned. “The road has become a death trap because of the incomplete nature of the work. The road will be prone to accidents and could even result in loss of lives with the onset of monsoons”, he said.
Sources in the know said the Fatorda MLA was upset that since the commencement of road widening project in January last, the GSIDC has not at all taken up work on the construction of the three Chapels, including the two Chapels of St Francis Xavier located on the roadside at the Nehru stadium junction and the one along the Margao KTC bus stand-old market road.
