GOA TRINAMOOL CONGRESS CAMPAIGNS…here at the Azad maidan to release their People’s Chargesheet which puts in a nutshell 20 years of political instability, misrule and corruption in Goa. Key speakers at the ceremony were TMC leaders Luizinho Faleiro and visiting Lok Sabha delegation members Mahua Moitra, Babul Supriyo, Saugata Roy and others who have joined the Goa TCM

By Pankajbala R Patel

Here is our people’s chargesheet…

IT is clear that Mamata Banarjee’s Trinamal Congress is not welcome in Goa because it is asking too many questions to the government of the day! The I-PAC team which is running her campaign in the run-up to the Assembly elections are naturally appalled that hostile BJP goons have been going around vandalizing the party’s hoardings and billboards put up across the state and have protested strongly about such undemocratic behaviour and demended an apology.
As if apologies and resignations against corruption charges would come easily to a party which has come to power through sneaky deals instead of respecting the people’s mandate in 2017! One has to just listen to the simply eloquent Lok Sabha member Mahua Moitra, who summed up the situation in Goa in a nutshell at the meeting held at the Azad maidan in Panaji on October 25, 2021. Even the meeting organized to address people and media people was botched up by last minute withdrawal of permission from the authorities. Nevertheless, visiting TMC delegates comprising of Lok Sabha members Saugata Roy, Mahua Moitra and former Union Minister Babul Suprioy had earlier in the day visited the family of the late Siddhi Naik (the 19-year-old young woman who was found dead on Calangute beach on August 12, 2021 to find out why the case was botched up by the police.
Later at the Azad maidan venue when the TMC’s People’s Chargesheet was released, Mahua Moitra asked why Goans put up with so much injustice and suffering in the last 20 years of Congress and BJP rule? While she was growing up as a young girl, she shared, she had thought of Goa as an egalitarian state, but after today’s visit she was shocked by the misrule and political instability in the lives of Goans. Goa has become a state where basic infrastructure for the people is in shambles, 25 % of the youth jobless and Goa has become a hotspot of criminal activities with the blessings of its politicians.
Even the police is hand-in-glove with the government in covering up crimes like what happened to Siddhi. She avowed that she would raise the matter of women’s safety in Goa in Parliament in Delhi. It is unacceptable that as many as five rapes take place in Goa, according to what Siddhi’s father Sandeep Naik told her while they visited him. He was a much worried father now about what can happen to other young women in Goa who go out to work for a living.
Mahua Moitra observed that women don’t seem to play an important role in governance in Goa, she understands that “out of 1,600 seats allocated so far only 83 women have been given tickets!” In contrast “in the TMC we have 41% women representation in Parliament.” Women in a state with such good indices of education deserves better, she said. In fact, Goa deserves better all around. Goans think what will the Trinamool Congress do in Goa? According to her it can do a lot given a leader like Mamata Banarjee who has earned her reputation as a street-figher and understands the problems of people at street level!
In the meantime perhaps Goans would like to take a look at the Goa TMC’s chargesheet filed against the government in the hope that it will raise enough fire in the people to ask if Goa deserves a government steeped in corruption or does Goa deserve better? All this comes to a boil in the background of the former governor of Goa Satyajit Pal Malik, now governor in Meghalaya, who in an explosive confession to the TMC’s Derek O’Brien, revealed that in fact he was posted out of Goa because “there is corruption in Goa government in handling of everything. That is why I was removed!”
The revelations made headlines out of Goa on electronic and social media, putting Chief Minister Pramod Sawant as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an embarrassing pickle. I-PAC’s TMC team running interference to bring wrongdoing out in the open in Goa has also met the present Governor of Goa Sreedharan Pillai to submit a memorandum to him calling for resignation of the chief minister for corrupt practices.
In this respect one may remember during Covid-19 pandemic of almost two years of lockdown when covid-inflicted patients actually died for want of oxygen in public hospital wards (while Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane were allegedly busy falling out over their “percentage cut” to be shared between them courtesy contracts for purchase of drugs, vaccines, equipment, oxygen cylinders, masks, PPL protection for doctors and health givers and much more).
The TMC meeting ended on an upbeat note without the use of microphone with the visiting leaders and spokespersons laying floral tributes at the martyr’s memorial here. Now all eyes are on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s three-day visit to Goa on October 28, 2021. Goans are undoubtedly looking forward to her visit regardless of whether the Goa Trinamool Congress party makes any inroads on the forthcoming assembly elections front with its less than attractive choices when it comes who might be the face of the next chief minister of Goa!
To add out own big of hope here we know for sure that the next prime minister of India will be Mamata-didi. If Narendara Modi can be prime minister, Mamata-didi can certainly be so with far more credentials. It is high our tragedy-plagued country got a woman prime minister back on the hot seat and who qualifies more than Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal?

GOA TRINAMOOL CONGRESS
PEOPLE’S CHARGESHEET

• Goan economy at its worst: 1 in 4 youth in Goa unemployed. Goa ranks 8th worst among all states in youth unemployment.
• Goa no longer for Goans: A average Goan cannot afford to buy a home in their own state.
• Basic infrastructure still in shambles: 5 out of 12 talukas face shortage of potable water, leaving Goa severely water stressed.
• Mining suspended, misery appended: This “Government of Fake Promises” did not start lawful mining despite the Supreme Court order. The Goa government has failed to recover the illegal mining loot amounting to Rs35,000 crore as calculated by the Shah Commission Report.
• State sponsored environmental destruction: Despite public opposition the government backed the Vasco-Mollem Western Railway double-track and Mopa airport projects, destroying Goa’s environment and cultural heritage.
• Fishermen & farmers betrayed: Goa’s fish catch has sharply declined by over 86% in the last ten years due dot excessive trawling by other states.
• Healthcare & education destroyed: Only 4 PHCs out of 23 mandated PHCs exist – 11.32 lakh Goans are denied their right to public healthcare.
• Social injustice, hallmark of Goan governance: In the last 32 years only 83 women contested out of 1653 candidates in assembly elections, denying women their rightful political representation.
• Goa, the new crime hotspot of India: Crime in Goa rose sharply by 60% (218 per lakh population) in the last four years alone. 5 women are rape in Goa every month, 3 of whom are minors. Goa’s rate of rape (7.8 per lakh population) has become double the national average. The Siddhi Naik case is the most recent reminder of the government’s incompetence in prompt investigation of crimes to bring to justice the culprits.