Likening Goa to “a garden” where defectors moved from one party to another under erstwhile Congress-led governments, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday claimed that it was only under the leaderships of the late Manohar Parrikar and current BJP Chief Minister Pramod Sawant that Goans had a stable and development-oriented government.
Mr. Gadkari was speaking during the release of the BJP’s manifesto for the Goa Assembly election. The saffron party has made 22 resolutions (to chime with its stated aim of winning 22-plus seats in the 2022 election) for Goa’s development.
“After the late Manohar Parrikar’s first term as Goa Chief Minister ended in 2005, the State had become like a garden, where people moved from one end to another. Goa had become famous in the country as a State of political defections. It was the BJP in the last 10 years that has given it stability … What had not happened in the last 50 years, the BJP under first Manohar Parrikar, and then Pramod Sawant’s leadership has given stability to the State,” he said, claiming that Mr. Sawant’s government had fulfilled nearly 80% of the promises in the party’s 2017 manifesto.
Incidentally, it was the BJP under Mr. Sawant that had split its erstwhile ally, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) by poaching its MLAs and then inducted 10 Congress MLAs, who defected en masse in July 2019 to the saffron party.
Quality housing for all
Of the many resolutions in the current manifesto, the BJP has promised to provide quality housing for all Goans by giving home loans for deserving families at low interest rates — 2% for women and 4% for men.
The manifesto has further promised three free LPG cylinders to every household besides enumerating big plans to an environment-friendly Goa with an emphasis on increasing employment opportunities by boosting tourism further. Resolutions have also been made to transform Goa into the country’s health and wellness hub and make it a premier destination for co-working spaces and remote working in a post-pandemic world.
‘Carbon neutral’
“I am pleased that the present government has made a resolution to make Goa ‘carbon neutral’. It is a critical issue to make Goa free of air, sound and water pollution. The Chief Minister provides subsidies for electric buses and taxis,” said Mr. Gadkari.
Stating that Goa had witnessed a “revolutionary change in infrastructure” in the past five years, the Union Minister said the coastal State would be getting a further ₹40,000 crore in the coming five years, with a significant amount of the funds devoted to improving roadworks and port facilities.
Mocking the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s scheme of ‘mohalla clinics’, Mr. Gadkari said Goa had among the country’s best healthcare services and had no requirement of mohalla clinics.
Hammering home the strength of ‘double-engine’ growth (BJP governments at the Centre and the State), Mr. Sawant said the 22 resolutions made in the manifesto were not “mere promises but a set of ideals backed with a comprehensive plan to achieve them.”
