Goa Congress chief targets Javadekar, says false assurance given to all-party delegation

The Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar on Thursday accused Union Environment and Forest Minister Prakash Javadekar of giving "false assurance" to an all-party delegation concerning environmental clearance given to Kalsa Bhanduri project.

In a statement, Chodankar called upon Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to give an explanation.

He said there was no response from Javdekar on environmental clearance given to Kalsa Bhanduri project to divert water from "Goa's lifeline" Mhadei even after of ten days, which he had sought during the meeting with an all-party delegation from Goa.

"It is a clear conspiracy of BJP in connivance with local leaders to give the clearance to Karnataka to woo the voters for the upcoming assembly bypolls as we said earlier," said Chodankar.

"After Supreme Court verdict on disqualification of Karnataka MLAs, it is clear now that bye-elections will be held soon as claimed by us earlier," he said.

He accused the Chief Minister of "betraying" people of Goa.

"Congress is committed to protect our Mother Mhadei and will continue to protest with Mhadei Jagor agitation. We demand CM to immediately withdraw Section 144 imposed in Goa," said Chodankar.