Attempts to create communal tension in Goa in recent past: CM

Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar today said there have been attempts to disrupt the communal harmony in the state in the recent past.
"Goa has had communal harmony since the liberation (from Portuguese rule) but in the recent past there have been attempts to disrupt it," Parsekar told a gathering on the occasion of Goa Legislators Day today.
The chief minister, however, didn't specify who was making "such attempts".
"I appeal to my fellow colleagues, former ministers, legislators to guide the government on its policies, and also help in tackling the forces attempting to create communal discord," he said.
Parsekar said his government will take along the former legislators in the matters of governance.

The former legislators being experienced should intervene in the issues which have the potential to create communal discord, he said.

Parsekar said Goa is the most cultured state with people
living in religious harmony.
"Goa is the safest place. That is why you will find a single girl riding a scooter in any isolated lane of the state even at 11 o'clock in the night," he said.
Admitting that to a certain extent garbage pollution does exist on state's beaches, the Chief Minister rubbished claims that state's waters are polluted.
"You can visit any beach. There is no pollution of water. But due to large number of tourists, the garbage problem can be seen," he said, adding that daily 50,000 people arrive at the state's lone Dabolim airport.

On the ongoing controversy over classification of coconut as a palm and not as a tree, he said the matter has been raised by certain opposition members who are searching for issues in the prelude to the assembly polls in the state due next year.
"For the last four years, the opposition could not make any allegation of corruption against the Chief Minister or any of
the minister. Now this is the year of election hence they are trying to search for the controversies," he said.
Parsekar said the amendment to Goa, Daman, Diu Tree Preservation Act was done considering the demands of farmers who want to replace the existing inviable coconut trees with the new saplings.

The government annually gives 25,000 coconut saplings free and 50,000 at subsidised rates to the farmers, he informed.