In the last month that Laxmikant Parsekar has been in office, his Cabinet has indeed scored. Alas, only if this had been for South Goa and not FC Goa.
Around half the members of the Goa Cabinet arrived at the Nehru Stadium, Fatorda to witness the crucial F C Goa Vs North East United tie on December 1. The VVIP team was led by Chief Minister, Laxmikant Parsekar, his deputy Francis D’Souza, Sports Minister Ramesh Tawadkar, Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar, Environment Minister Alina Saldanha, Fisheries Minister, Avertano Furtado et al.
Team Parsekar has been busy coming to South Goa for other functions too. The Chief Minister declared the three-day State Youth Festival open, while his deputy had come down to the Lohia Maidan to inaugurate the Urban Self Help Group mela.
But the fun and games apart, the new Parsekar dispensation has not yet made its presence felt in Salcete or South Goa to address the burning issues craving for government attention. When the Chief Minister was questioned by the media on his agenda for the commercial capital besieged by problems, Parsekar wriggled out of the situation by saying that his government will devote attention not only to Margao but across the State.
His deputy Francis D’Souza claims that that soon after taking over the Health portfolio, he chaired a meeting to review the status of work in respect of the long delayed district hospital for South Goa – hit by failed deadlines since work commenced in 2009. D’Souza, however, is yet to pay an official visit to the ailing Hospicio, where patients have no option than to share beds and the hospital hit by manpower and medicine shortage. Incidentally, D’Souza’s predecessor and now Chief Minister Parsekar had failed to visit the hospital for over a year now despite cries for attention from the hospital authorities and the patients alike.
Environment Minister Alina Saldanha did her bit though when she along with local MLA Digambar Kamat inspected the Ana Fonte Garden as per the promise handed out by her in the House.
That’s not all. While Manohar Parrikar had Salcete on his agenda from day one as evident by his frequent visits to Navelim, Benaulim and Velim, the incumbent Chief Minister has not yet unveiled his plan of action for the taluka – which was responsible for the decimation of the Congress in the 2012 Assembly polls.
Meanwhile, Salcete MLAs supporting the ruling dispensation have invited the Chief Minister to visit their constituencies as the ongoing works initiated during the Parrikar regime are waiting for the follow up action from the present government.
Margao was showered with promises from the BJP-led government during Parrikar’s rule. They included a master plan to tackle the traffic and parking woes affecting the city, the de-contamination of River Sal; putting the sewerage network in place, including the replacement of the Northern main line; construction of a new bus terminus; expediting work on the district hospital; the ring road project et al.
Even the allocation of space for the various departments has hit a block after the change in government. The South Goa Zilla Panchayat was supposed to receive a sanction letter, allocating space for the district Panchayat body during the Parrikar regime, but the matter is still pending following the change in political guard.
Opposition MLA and a vocal critic of the ruling government, Vijai Sardesai said that Salcete in general and Margao in particular has not benefitted in any manner so far. On the contrary, he said that Margao police sub-division, which has jurisdiction over entire Salcete, has earned notoriety for the spate of dacoities, burglaries and robberies during the first month of Parsekar’s tenure.
“The only “development” that Salcete has seen in the first month of the new government led by Parsekar is that it has topped the chart for the maximum burglaries in Goa, with the Margao Police being the epicentre of the malaise with inefficiency being seen as the main reasons for the same.
The honeymoon period of the present government did not allow the government to even discuss any concrete development for the constituencies in Salcete’, he said.
