MARGAO
Urging Union Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu to stop fooling Goans on Mopa airport, Congress MLA Reginaldo Lourenco said the minister should openly say that he wants Mopa to export Ratnagiri Hapus mangoes, which have a three-week shelf life compared to one week for Mancurado.
Referring to the Aviation Minister’s stand that Mopa can be developed as a cargo hub, Reginaldo said he respects Prabhu’s commercial acumen and did not expect him to “cut and paste” from Parrikar’s bluffs.
Addressing the media, the three-time Congress MLA reminded that major export from Goa is iron ore and major import into the state is coal. “Is this what Suresh Prabhu aims to export or import from/to Goa by air. There are low value high volume dirty cargo that can be imported/exported only by ships,” he said.
Reginaldo did not hide his anti-Mopa stand, saying that he stands by his opposition to the new airport, saying the government is only fooling the unemployed youth by promising jobs on priority. “Major exports form India are engineering goods, gems, jewelry, chemicals, agricultural products, textiles and shoes. None of these items are manufactured in and around Goa. The major Indian imports were crude petroleum, gold, coal briquettes, diamonds and petroleum gas. Except gold and diamonds, none of these items can be moved by air. Even for gold and diamonds, the consuming centres are not near Goa,” he added.
Saying that Goa gets agricultural products, vegetables and fruits from neighbouring Belgaum and they are transported by trucks and the time taken is couple of hours, the Congress MLA said vegetables from Belgaum are
not approved in most countries because they use wrong fertilizers and excessive pesticides.
“Also BJP has become slaves of multinationals supplying genetically modified (GM) crops and seeds. The Western world does not allow import of products yielding from GM crops and seeds, which India imports from them,” he said.
