Congress demands full-time CM for Goa
Panaji, May 12: A day ahead of BJP President Amit Shah's visit to Goa, the Congress on Saturday demanded he immediately appoint a new Chief Minister to replace an ailing Manohar Parrikar.
Parrikar is undergoing advanced treatment for pancreatic cancer in a US hospital.
Former Union Minister of State for Law and senior Congress leader Ramakant Khalap also said the Congress would petition the Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court challenging the constitutionality of the three-member minister advisory Committee appointed by Parrikar to administer the state in his absence.
"We are demanding from Shah to give the state a full-time Chief Minister, in place of Parrikar. In 2017, we got the people's mandate to form government but Shah usurped it from us," Khalap told reporters in presence of Goa Congress President Girish Chodankar.
"The state has no fully functional Chief Minister and the BJP does not even bother to fulfill its responsibility towards that end by giving a full-fledged Chief Minister," Khalap told reporters in presence of state Congress president Girish Chodankar.
Parrikar was shifted to the US in March, a month after he was first admitted for stomach pain, which was subsequently diagnosed as pancreatic cancer.
Khalap also said the Congress would soon file a petition in the High Court bench in Mumbai, challenging the constructional validity of a three-member committee of ministers appointed by Parrikar which includes one minister each from ruling coalition alliance parties and one minister from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
"We hope the High Court bench in Goa will take cognisance of the 'unconstitutional manner' in which the state is being governed," Khalap said.
"There is no provision for three persons to rule a state. The result is chaos in administration. We are challenging the appointment of this committee," the Congress leader added.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
