Goa Forward Party accuses AAP & BJP over housing board scam; moves to Lokayukta

Goa Forward Party today accused Aam Aadmi Party's state convener Elvis Gomes and BJP MLA Glenn Ticlo of being involved in a number of scams in the state-run Housing Board and said it will approach the Lokayukta over this issue.

"We have procured documents under the Right to Information Act exposing a series of scams allegedly unleashed by Gomes as the managing director and BJP MLA Glenn Ticlo as the chairman of the Board.

"We are going to file a case before the Goa Lokayukta next week," Goa Forward Party spokesperson Durgadas Kamat said, adding the party will "expose" the "nexus" between Ticlo and Gomes in the Housing Board, during the week.

Gomes, serving as Inspector General of Prisons besides being Managing Director of the Housing Board, had opted for voluntary retirement to contest on AAP ticket from Cuncolim constituency in South Goa for next year's Legislative Assembly polls.

Producing the papers, which he said were procured under the RTI Act, Kamat alleged that Gomes and Ticlo had allotted several residential apartments to people under Housing Board's projects at Curti (North Goa) and Rumdamol-Davorlim (South Goa) without any bidding process.

"The Housing Board had directly allotted the flats to the people merely on the basis of application. The rules of the Board mention that the applicant has to apply online, pay the required fee and will be chosen from the lot. All these rules were bypassed by the Board," Kamat claimed.

He also alleged that the plots referred to the Board after the beneficiaries concerned failed to construct houses there, were reverted to the beneficiaries in violation of the norms.

"We smell a major scam in the entire dealing. We want Lokayukta to investigate whether there were any underhand dealings on this," Kamat said.

Gomes and Ticlo were not available for comments.