Goa Congress challenges BJP over mining scam allegations
Darpan News Desk IANS, 25 Aug, 2021 11:58 AM
Panaji, Aug 25 (IANS) If Congress leaders were really involved in the Goa mining scam, the BJP would have nailed them by using central enforcement agencies at their disposal, AICC Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao said on Wednesday.
Rao also slammed Chief Minister Pramod Sawant for raking up 10-year-old allegations related to the mining scam in an attempt to put Congress leaders in the dock in pollbound Goa.
"After 10 years still they are making the same allegations, what happened to your IT (Income Tax), ED (Enforcement Directorate) CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), all those things? If anything wrong has happened, they should prove that wrong has been committed. Catch the culprits," Rao told reporters in Panaji.
"The CM simply makes allegations. You are not meant to make allegations, you are meant to investigate. You have the authority, you have the central government. Why is Mr Sawant simply making these statements?" Rao also said, claiming that Sawant's raking up of the mining scam allegation was only meant to divert the attention of the people of Goa ahead of the 2022 assembly polls.
Mining activity in Goa was banned by the apex court first in 2012, following the unearthing of a Rs 35,000 crore scam by a judicial commission appointed by the central government.
The Commission headed by Justice MB Shah had accused then Congress Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, top officials of the Goa government as well as mining magnates in the state of being allegedly involved in the scam. Kamat has however claimed innocence in the matter.
The findings of the Commission are being probed by the Special Investigation Team of the Goa Police for nearly a decade now.
Patra condemned the recent incident in which a nine-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly gang-raped, murdered and then cremated by her attackers in South West Delhi on Sunday evening.
Despite mobile phones are prohibited inside a meeting room where prisoners meet with the visitors, this incident has brought forth the lapses on the part of the jail administration.
In a bid to highlight the rising air pollution as well as the serious health hazards faced by the people, a group of organisations, think tanks and civil society groups have joined hands to form 'Clean Air Punjab'.
Few hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the flood situation in the state, the latter wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, describing the flood as a ‘man made one', alleging that the "unprecedented release of water from the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) dams Panchet, Maithon and Tenughat" is responsible for the situation.
The incident took place on Sunday night and the victim's family members have alleged that the accused stuffed cloth into the girl's mouth and raped her.
