Panaji: Congress
on Sunday demanded a CBI inquiry into the “extortion racket” of BJP’s
Mormugao MLA
Sankalp Amonkar at the port and said if chief minister
Pramod Sawant
doesn’t order a probe, then he must admit that he is also part of the racket.
Questioning why Amonkar had not stalled coal transportation, Congress said the Mormugao MLA appears to have the backing of BJP and the chief minister.
Congress Working Committee (CWC) member
Girish Chodankar
said the allegations of corruption against Amonkar were “very serious in nature”. Either Amonkar must come clean on it or else, Sawant should order a CBI inquiry since Mormugao Port Authority (MPA) comes under the Union govt. “If Sawant doesn’t order a
CBI probe
, then it will be crystal clear that this is a scam where the chief minister is a partner,” Chodankar said.
Congress state president
Amit Patkar
demanded a response from both Sawant and PM
Narendra Modi
.
“Congress demands the chief minister and the Prime Minister must act or admit that they are party to this racket,” he said.
Congress has also demanded that the chief minister should take steps to ensure smooth operations at the port.
“I demand that the South Goa collector must take serious cognizance of this extortion mafia and deploy a special force at Mormugao port to ensure smooth transportation of cargo,” Patkar said.
Congress’s South Goa MP Capt
Viriato Fernandes
(retd) said Amonkar’s “brazen hooliganism” is detrimental for the country and for Goa’s logistics sector.
“Such brazen hooliganism is anti-social and anti-national activity in damaging the logistics operations and has a direct impact on the economic activity of the state as well as of the country. Why is the turncoat MLA quiet on coal operations? Is it because he is happy with the alleged hafta that he gets from the companies,” asked Fernandes.
With speculation that Amonkar could be inducted into the cabinet, Patkar took a dig, asking if the “ministry of extortion” would be offered to the Mormugao MLA.
English (US) ·