the goan I network
PANAJI
Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President Shantaram Naik criticised the Governor’s speech for leaving out crucial issues like river nationalisation, coal handling, the regional plan as well as CRZ plan for the state of Goa.
Reacting to the address of the Goa Governor Mridula Sinha, Shantaram said that the two most debated issues in Goa – nationalisation of rivers and coal have not been even mentioned in her address on the first day of the Budget session of the state Assembly on Tuesday.
“She has not addressed the issue of nationalisation of rivers. This was an important issue. What has happened to this? People have put their grievances. There is a view going around in the whole state opposing nationalisation. What is the thinking of the government on this? The governor should have told us through her address,” Shantaram said.
He said that the Governor should have replied over whether the government has considered the problems fishermen could be facing in view of the nationalisation of rivers and whether they would like to act on that. “Whether a social impact study was done before the decision and what were the remedial measures, if any,” Naik said.
Naik said that the Governor should have also given a clear statement on the coal handling issue. “The government’s statements (on the coal issue) have been confusing. Therefore a clear statement should have been there in the address,” he said adding that while the Congress has taken a stand that coal, required to the extent of consumption of local needs will be permissible ‘whether the government has accepted this suggestion or not should have been mentioned’.
Naik also said that while the Governor mentioned issues like that of bringing fallow land under cultivation there was no roadmap spelt out and the issue of legal aid too was only given a passing reference.
“I’m only referring to four-five omissions. If you consider Goa as a whole there are so many issues that the Governor could have dealt with which she has omitted,” Shantaram Naik said.
