Pressure on Goa CM to dump Godinho

PANAJI, June 28: The monsoon session of the Goa Assembly, which begins on Monday, will find Chief Minister Pratapsinh Rane under increased p...

PANAJI, June 28: The monsoon session of the Goa Assembly, which begins on Monday, will find Chief Minister Pratapsinh Rane under increased pressure from the Opposition to sack controversial Power Minister Mauvin Godinho. The main Opposition parties 8212; the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MGP and the Bharatiya Janata Party 8212; have already begun coordinating efforts to target the Chief Minister.

BJP MLA Manohar Parrikar had exposed the power rebate scam allegedly perpetuated by Godinho in the last session of the Assembly. As per the details of the power rebate file published in detail in The Indian Express last week, Godinho had personally carried alterations in a government notification in 1996, which was issued to amend a 1991 notification. This was despite the fact that the original notification was rescinded by the government in 1995.

Godinho is now accused of having carried out the amendments with a view to favour several industrial units. Both the BJP and the MGP remain unconvinced aboutGodinho8217;s claims of innocence. Leaders of both parties, including leader of the Opposition, Kashinath Jhalmi of the MGP, have announced their intentions of working in tandem to oust the Power Minister.

Godinho received a further setback last week when the Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court passed severe strictures against the power department regarding the allotment of power connections. The court directed the state government to submit an affidavit explaining why power connections were released to 28 new industrial units from October 1997, even though the state faced a power shortage. The bench has also sought to know who was responsible for granting the connections.

Some of the power guzzling units in Goa, which were given concessional power, have been unable to pay even the reduced electricity bills. In its affidavit, the government stated that the power supply to 167 units have been disconnected. The affidavit also stated that the power department has outstandings up to Rs 16.04 crore from variousindustrial establishments.