Panaji, June 25 (TNN): The proposed eight-to-nine day Europe tour planned by the tourism department to promote the upcoming exposition of the sacred relics of St Francis Xavier scheduled to begin in Goa from November 22 has been scrapped.
Referring to a TOI report about the state's politicians planning another trip abroad (June 24), a defensive chief minister Manohar Parrikar said that there was no such planned foreign tour proposal. Parrikar said that he had "checked with the department" and that "there was no such proposal.
But Union minister for tourism Shripad Naik said that he was told that a proposal in writing in this regard would be dispatched soon from Goa. Tourism minister Dilip Parulekar had told TOI on Monday evening that the Europe tour proposal was in the pipeline but that a final decision over the nature of the tour would be discussed after the approval of the Union ministry, Parulekar had said.
His contention was that such a trip to Spain where St Francis Xavier was born, would bring anywhere between 50,000 and 1lakh tourists to Goa. But indicating a clear lack of coordination between his ministers and himself, Parrikar said that he had "checked with the department" and that "there was no such proposal".
This proposal comes days after a planned junket involving six ministers and MLAs to Brazil had dented the image of the BJP government in Goa. Hours after justifying the Brazil tour as "an investment", the chief minister had to withdraw state sponsorship for the tour, after inquires were made by the PMO, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to Goa.