Panaji, Sep 21 (TOI): Questioning the state government's motivation to appoint a Lokayukta, the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) has issued an ultimatum to chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar to appoint a Lokayukta within a month. The party went on to state that they were working on a strategy to counter and challenge the current government on all fronts.

"The Goa government's tactics to delay the appointment of Lokayukta raises serious doubts whether the chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar and his government really want a Lokayukta to be appointed," secretary Durgadas Kamat said.

The party went on to state that the Bharatiya Janata party had come to power in the state by promising to resolve issues like the casino menace, implement the Regional Plan, appoint a Lokayukta among other issues. "Till date we don't see any concrete steps taken by this government towards resolving these issues which only means that the BJP government has fooled the citizens of the state," Kamat said.

The state Congress unit also took a dig at Parsekar saying that the chief minister was being remote controlled by the Union defence minister Manohar Parrikar, who was the earlier chief minister of the state.

The party alleged that a probable reason for the delay in appointing the Lokayukta was that corruption had risen to a higher level under the Bharatiya Janata party. "BJP is scared that their own MLAs and ministers would come under the scanner of the Lokayukta," Kamat said.