Opposition demands removal of tainted Goa minister from cabinet

Panaji: A day after Goa Police filed its charge sheet against State Sports Minister Ramesh Tawadkar for rioting and unlawful assembly in a wildlife sanctuary, Opposition on Saturday demanded his ouster from the cabinet.

Congress, NCP and Goa Forward parties said Tawadkar should resign or Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar should show him the door. "We demand that Tawadkar should resign voluntarily from the cabinet or chief minister should drop him from the cabinet. He has been accused of serious charges and now he is before the court," Goa Congress Spokesman Sunil Kawathankar said.

He said Congress party will be petition Governor Mridula Sinha seeking her intervention to drop the minister from the cabinet. On Friday, Canacona Police chargesheeted Tawadkar before a Judicial Magistrate First Class after he allegedly barged into the office of a senior forest officer at Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary and forcibly took away two persons who were in custody there on April 27, 2009.

He was booked under various sections of Indian Penal Code for unlawful assembly, rioting and criminal trespass. NCP State President Jose Philip D'Souza said the cabinet should not have a tainted minister in it.

"He should resign immediately. By keeping him in the cabinet BJP is proving that it is the party with tainted faces," he said. Goa Forward too has echoed the demand of his removal.

"Such a tainted minister cannot continue to be part of the cabinet. Chief Minister should sack the minister if he does not resign on his own," party spokesman Durgadas Kamat said. "BJP should practice what they preach. This shows that BJP is morally and ethically bankrupt. Goa Forward would petition the Governor on the same," Kamat added.