Panaji, Feb 14 (TOI): With the 2019 Lok Sabha polls nearing, Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar, a former cabinet colleague of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday made a hard pitch for the PM in Goa.
“Goa is lucky that the PM has a soft corner for the state and has funded development in the state which Goa would take 25 years to complete with the limited state budget,” Parrikar said.
The event was to mark laying of a foundation stone for a superspeciality block at Goa Medical College and the audience included top doctors from the state.
“The Prime Minister always tells me that you take any particular sector and try to work out a plan to make Goa a model state in that particular sector. I think that in health, education we can become a model state. We are fortunate that the Prime Minister has an additional soft corner for Goa. So whenever I go with a Goa project, he has never said no to me. Maybe, he remembers Goa as a lucky mascot or whatever other reason, but we should take advantage of it,” Parrikar said.
He said Goa, with its ‘tax and non-tax budget of only around Rs 6,000 crore’ would have never been able to undertake projects like the new Zuari bridge, which had not been taken up by the earlier government due to shortage of funds.
“Today, all the project work going on in the state in health, water supply, environment and roads, the Centre is contributing Rs 25,000 crore over a period of five years. I am pointing this out with a purpose because you should acknowledge the fact that the state would have just contributed Rs 1,500 crore for development. But, the central government is already contributing 40% in our budget and on top of it, spending another Rs 25,000 crore. You do the math. It would have taken us 25 years with only our budget provision to complete the same projects in Goa. That is the reason a new Zuari bridge was not being constructed though we knew the condition of the present bridge,” said Parrikar.
Parrikar further said that Goa should ‘consolidate the opportunities.’
“It is not easy to get a leader of that vision. I have seen how he works for 2.5 years. I used to admire him even before that because he could get things done. But, when I saw him up close, I saw the extent of his vision. On one hand yesterday, he was giving a speech in Abu Dhabi to an international audience. But his feet are still on the ground. The very next day of giving that speeech he will enquire the status of Goa’s open defecation free status,” said Parrikar.