Posts Tagged ‘Panaji’
Written by admin on 06 February 2012
Panaji, Feb 6 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee may be opposed to special economic zones (SEZ) as well as foreign investment in civil aviation and retail, but her party Trinamool Congress now wants to carve out a “financial district” in faraway Goa.
The Trinamool, in its election manifesto released ahead of the March 3 Goa polls, states that they want to make the beach tourism state into a banking hub on the lines of Hong Kong.
“Invite international banks and financial institutions to set up business in Goa (Hong Kong model),” the manifesto released by the Trinamool’s state president Wilfred de Souza says, underlining the party’s pitch to create a “financial district” in Goa, to facilitate the banking hub dream.
Speaking to IANS, de Souza said the creation of a financial district here and turning Goa into a banking paradise on the lines of Hong Kong was in sync with Banerjee’s economic policies.
“It is in sync with Mamata Banerjee’s policies,” de Souza said.
Banerjee has in the recent past been in the news for opposing foreign investment in civil aviation and retail sector. Her opposition to Tata’s Nano manufacturing project in Singur, West Bengal over forcible acquisition of farmlands for industrial development, resulted in the manufacturing hub of India’s smallest car being shifted to Gujarat.
The Trinamool election manifesto also talks of establishing a stock exchange in Goa, which the party envisions as a financial services hub.
Tags: Goa, Panaji
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Written by admin on 06 February 2012
Panaji, Feb 6 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced its first list of 22 candidates for the March 3 assembly polls in Goa. The list includes five Christian candidates.
The list was issued late Sunday by the BJP High Command in New Delhi and later relayed to the state headquarters in Panaji.
The five Christian candidates are Francis D’Souza (Mapusa), Michael Lobo (Calangute), Carlos Almeida (Vasco), Mathany Salhanha (Cortalim) and Glenn Ticlo (Aldona).
There are no other surprises in the list, most of which comprises sitting legislators, with the exception of Govind Parvatkar (Porvorim), Rajendra Arlekar (Pernem), Pramod Sawant (Sanquelim), Vishwajeet Rane (Poriem), Satyavijay Naik (Valpoi) and Subhash Naik (Cuncolim).
Party sources said the inclusion of minority candidates in the list was reflective of the party’s policy of reaching out to the considerably high minority segment in Goa, which has a 26 percent Christian population and about seven percent Muslims.
Tags: Goa, Panaji
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Written by admin on 05 February 2012
Panaji, Feb 5 (IANS) The Trinamool Congress unveiled a populist Goa assembly election manifesto Sunday, promising stringent action against illegal mining and returning land “recklessly” acquired by government agencies.
The manifesto, which was released by the party’s state president Wilfred de Souza, claimed that the party would work towards confiscating assets and freezing bank accounts of those indulging in illegal mining.
The party also proposed to “charge-sheet illegal mining lessees/operators, involved government officials and any other individuals/entities indicted by the (M.B.) Shah Commission”, referring to the judicial commission appointed by the central government to probe illegal mining across India, including Goa.
Speaking to reporters, Wilfred de Souza said that the party’s manifesto promised to review the land acquisition cases and return land acquired from farmers by the state government for the sports city — to host the National Games (year undecided) at Pernem, 30 km from here, and the greenfield airport at Mopa, near the Maharashtra border.
“Excessive land acquired for public projects as well as for private industry by the state will be systematically documented and returned back to the original owners,” he said.
The party said that it had returned land acquired by West Bengal’s erstwhile Left Front government for special economic zone (SEZ) operators to the farmers in Singur and Nandigram within 100 days of coming to power.
“We will return the land acquired for the Mopa airport and for the sports city. The land belongs to the people. We do not need this second airport. The one airport at Dabolim is more than enough. It is being expanded already,” he said.
The party which started its Goa chapter only last month, is the first to release its election manifesto, before any other major political party.
The manifesto also promised establishment of the Lokayukta, online police complaint registration system, solid waste management mechanisms and creating a financial district in Goa on the lines of Hong Kong.
Tags: Goa, Panaji
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Written by admin on 05 February 2012
Panaji, Feb 5 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) still hasn’t finalised its chief ministerial candidate for the March 3 polls in Goa, even as party president Nitin Gadkari claimed Sunday that the two warring factions within the party had buried the hatchet.
“We are all going to the elections together. Manohar Parrikar, Shripad Naik, our president and leaders of the MGP (Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, BJP’s poll partner for the assembly election),” a guarded Gadkari said, when asked why the party had not finalised a chief ministerial candidate for the elections, as has been the norm in the past polls.
A caste-based war between Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar (a Brahmin) and North Goa MP Shripad Naik (a Bhandari) has created doubts in the rank and file of the BJP, which has failed to project a united front even during the party’s pre-poll campaign. The feud has a remarkable semblance to the Nitin Gadkari-Gopinath Munde tussle in Maharashtra last year, when the BJP’s Brahmin and OBC leaders respectively slugged it out over the appointment of office bearers.
The tension between Naik, who has always been projected as a mass OBC leader by the BJP and former chief minister Manohar Parrikar, who has a smaller, but cult-like following amongst the Goa’s urban elite and the Gaud Saraswat Brahmin (GSB) sections, has largely derailed the party’s pre-election campaigneering agenda.
Naik has publicly opted out of the Jan Sampark yatra, launched by the party to drum up support across the state before the elections, after the BJP leadership in New Delhi thumbed down Naik’s plan to contest the state assembly elections.
Gadkari said that the outstanding “issues” concerning Naik were an “internal party matter” and had been resolved.
“All issues have been resolved. They were an internal party matter. Shripad Naik will contest the assembly elections in Goa. The party’s parliamentary board will decide which constituency he will contest from,” Gadkari said.
Tags: Goa, Panaji
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Written by admin on 05 February 2012
Panaji, Feb 5 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) will ensure transparency in alloting mining leases in Goa if it is voted to power in the March 3 assembly elections, its president Nitin Gadkari said Sunday.
Gadkari also said that “eccentric” green norms in India needed to be modified to ensure a balance between the environment, industry and employment.
Gadkari, who was in Goa to finalise a pre-poll seat sharing alliance with the regional Maharashtrawadi Gomantk Party, was speaking to reporters in Panaji Sunday.
“I have discussed the issue (mining) at length with the leadership. We are looking at transparency in the allotment of mines. We need both, environment and industry,” Gadkari said, adding that the party would seriously address the mining issues both in Karantaka and at the centre and look to evolve a cohesive policy.
Gadkari’s statement assumes significance in Goa where mining leases allotted to influential families during the Portuguese era continue to be operated by them even now.
Before Sesa Goa limited, a Vedanta Resources-owned company, bought over all the mining leases operated by the very influential Dempo family a couple of years back, a handful of families controlled virtually the entire mining industry in Goa, which was operated with the help of numerous opaquely managed private limited companies.
Before Gadkari’s poll pledge, the Communist Party of India as well as civil society groups in Goa have consistently demanded that the multi-crore mining industry in Goa be nationalised.
Gadkari has also called for a rehaul of India’s environment laws, which he called “eccentric”, when it came to heavy industries like mining.
“The eccentric environment laws are not appropriate,” Gadkari said, adding that there had to be a balance between employment, industry and development.
The BJP has accused the Digambar Kamat-led government of sitting over a Rs.25,000 crore mining scam, of which the opposition says several ministers are a part of.
Tags: Panaji
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Written by admin on 05 February 2012
Panaji, Feb 5 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday announced a pre-poll alliance in Goa with the regional Maharshtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP).
BJP president Nitin Gadkari, who was in Goa to finalise the alliance, told reporters at a joint press conference that it was a natural alignment of anti-Congress forces.
“As per the final arrangement the BJP will contest 31 seats and the MGP 8 and both the parties will support an independent candidate in Cumbharjua constituency,” Gadkari said, sealing a two-month-long process of heated wrangling between the two parties over seat sharing.
MGP was a partner in the Congress-led government in Goa and withdrew its support Sunday, minutes before announcing its alliance with the BJP.
“We have withdrawn support to the Congress government today because we are tired of the corruption in this government,” said Dipak Dhavalikar, president of the MGP, after being a partner in the alliance for over four years.
Gadkari said that a poll manifesto would be issued by the party soon. “The Congress government has been the most corrupt yet in Goa and the BJP-MGP alliance promises a good, clean and efficient government. This is a natural alliance,” Gadkari said.
The MGP, which once ruled Goa for over 15 years after the state’s liberation in 1961, is a fading force with just two legislators in the 40-member assembly.
As per the seat sharing arrangement, the MGP has been allotted the Ponda, Marcaim, Benaulim, Thivim, Dabolim, Quepem, Priol and Nuvem assembly seats, whereas the BJP would contest 31. Both parties have also resolved to support an independent candidate Nirmala Sawant in the Cumbharjua assembly seat in north Goa.
Tags: Goa, Panaji
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