BJP dismisses Congress' 'charge sheet' against Goa govt

Panaji: The political 'charge sheet' released by Congress against the BJP-led government in Goa has elicited mixed reactions with the ruling party rubbishing the charges, while the newly formed outfit Goa Forward terming the main Opposition's move as better late than never.

"Better late than never that the grand old party (Congress) is trying to behave like the Opposition, which in the last five years it has never appeared to be," Goa Forward spokesman Durgadas Kamat said on the 'charge sheet' released on Monday.

"However, some prominent and conspicuous issues that have been overlooked in the charge sheet will lead to obvious suspicions of a joint venture between both the prominent national parties (BJP-Congress) in the state," Kamat said.

He said Congress missed to mention the land scam in the guise of promoting Special Economic Zone (SEZ) which was a prominent issue that should have been taken by the state government.

Congress' 'charge sheet' nailed the Laxmikant Parsekar government on 25 different counts accusing it of frequent 'U turns', broken promises, brazen scams and bad governance.

It had also charged BJP of stopping mining activity, paving way for large scale destruction of coconut trees through amendment to Trees Act, making Goa a 'sin-city' through drugs and prostitution besides criticising it on other fronts.

The ruling party has, however, rubbished the charge sheet claiming that it is not for the Opposition party but people of Goa to evaluate performance of the government in last five years.

"People gave BJP a mandate in 2012. BJP was chosen while Congress was shown the door by voters. Now it is for the voters to evaluate our performance," BJP Goa spokesman Kiran Kandolkar said.

He ridiculed the 'charge sheet' and said, "people will give hundred per cent marks to the BJP led government for its performance which was people-centric and development oriented."

Kandolkar said BJP has fulfilled 90 per cent of the promises it made in the election manifesto that was released during 2012 polls. "People will once again vote for the party," he claimed.