Congress re-assures special status to Goa if voted to power

The Congress party today released its Goa-specific manifesto in addition to the national one, re-assuring the long-pending promise of special status to the coastal state to preserve its identity.
Goa Congress Chief John Fernandes along with the central observer Siddharth Patel released the manifesto here which had four additional pages attached to it, listing out the state specific issues.
The issue of demand for Special Status, which was also discussed during the last Parliamentary polls, figures in the manifesto which has pictures of party president Sonia Gandhi, general secretary Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on its cover page.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi during the 2009 election rally in Goa had assured Goa a special status.
Fernandes blamed the state government for failure to pass the resolution for special status in the Assembly which is a precursor for the Union government to take its decision.
"It was recently that the Assembly passed resolution which is now pending with the Union government," the Congress leader said.

Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar during his meet with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had hardly spent any time in apprising him about the issue of special status, he alleged.
The Congress manifesto which has seven state specific assurances has mentioned that Goa being a small and beautiful state, there is a mad rush both nationally and internationally for people to own a piece of this beautiful land.

This has given rise to change of demography over a period of time.
The Congress party has alleged that both national and international land sharks and mafias are involved in big way in depleting the scarce land.
"Hence people feel that their unique identity must be retained for posterity at least by putting an end to huge transfer of land to non-Goans," the manifesto reads.