Thaindian News

Panaji, March 5 (IANS) Chief Minister Digambar Kamat wearing a yellow industrial helmet and Home Minister Ravi Naik holding a placard inviting Israeli drug dealers to Goa figure on the cover of a booklet released by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on major scams under the current Congress-led government in the state.

Kamat and Naik rub shoulders with PWD Minister Churchill Alemao toting bags with 20 percent written on them and a studious-looking Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane carrying a briefcase with PPP (public-private partnership) written on it. These four “photoshopped” images featured on the cover of a 16-page colour booklet represent the height of systemised corruption in the state, state BJP leaders said.

The booklet titled “Tainted Government” was released Friday by Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Gopinath Munde.

“We could only incorporate four faces on the cover, because of space constraints. These four represent the height of corruption in Goa. That is why they are on the cover page,” Leader of Opposition in Goa assembly Manohar Parrikar said.

The BJP has published nearly 1 lakh copies of the booklet, which they say will be distributed by the cadre to most households in the state.

“The chief minister (Kamat) is allowing illegal mining, the home minister’s (Naik) son has links with the drug and the mining mafia, the PWD minister (Alemao) is concerned with earning commissions on PWD tenders and the health minister (Rane) is carving scandal after scandal using the PPP mode. Goa is being ravaged by this government,” Parrikar said.

The publishers of the book, the general secretary (not named) of the BJP’s state unit has said that the booklet was aimed at making everyone aware of the real issues behind the failure of the Congress government on all fronts.

“We hope that this booklet will acquaint our readers with the misdeeds and scams of the current regime and arm them to fight against the anti-people policies of the present Congress-led government,” the publisher’s note states.

Criticising the chief minister for his handling of the mining department, state BJP president Laxmikant Parsenkar said Kamat, who had been the minister for mines for the last eleven years - without a break - had done nothing to control both rampant and illegal mining in the state’s hinterland.

“In the cover photo, we have not shown Kamat with a yellow industrial helmet without a reason. He has ravaged Goa by allowing illegal mining. Our hills, our fields and agriculture is being destroyed because of the illegal mining lobby,” Parsenkar said.

The BJP booklet lists several failures of the Congress government including a total collapse of the law and order situation, repeated thefts in temples and churches, excise evasion scam - in which Kamat’s pet officials are linked according to the BJP - and other scams, ranging from issues related to garbage disposal, allotment of land for the Special Economic Zones, PDS rice diversion scam, and casino licence scam, among others.