from Daijiworld's special correspondent from Panaji

Panaji, Apr 28: If Goa Pradesh Youth Congress committee's (GPYCC) mission succeeds, than Goa will not have a single statue abused.

In a unique programme aptly titled "Abhivadan" (Homage), the GPYCC workers these days are busy cleaning all the statues in the state.

It all began with a huge Mahatma Gandhi statue, which usually gets attention on October 1, a day before Gandhi Jayanti. This statue installed on Panaji-Ponda highway near Old Goa churches, was the first one to get GPYCC attention.

"The statues are installed with great fervour and later people forget about them. There are hundreds of such statues which are abused in Goa. Our initiative aims at giving them respect," GPYCC president Girish Chodankar states.

Going by GPYCC version, starting their programme from statue of Mahatma Gandhi was just a coincidence. "We are going to clean all the statues irrespective of party ideology. There is no politics here," explained Chodankar.

Chodankar stated that this was an  innovative programme by youth congress to make local concerned authorities aware that they should take care of the statues installed within their locality. "We have instructed all our 40 block committees to take up the programme vigorously. They will be cleaning each statue every month till local authorities wake up," he stated.

This is not the for the first time that GPYCC has taken up innovative programmes. Two years back, Chodankar himself drove a motorcycle into a cabin of Margao municipal council chairperson protesting against the lack of space for parking in the city.

Similarly, a swimming competition in the potholes was organized by this youth outfit to protest potholes on the roads.