PANAJI: Congress Aldona MLA Adv Carlos Alvares Ferreira on Tuesday cornered the government over needless and wasteful expenditure on self promotion in the name of public events and state functions.
Raising the matter during question hour, Ferreira raised the question on events being organised and exposed the wasteful expenditure in crores of rupees with a select few agencies bagging all the lucrative contracts.
“When the State is reeling under a debt of Rs. 400 crores per month and the common man is being burdened with higher taxes, higher electricity charges, non-release of Ladli Lakshmi scheme money and Griha Aadhar scheme money, pending for years the government has spent by its own admission nearly Rs 30 crore solely on promotion,” Adv Carlos said.
“This includes Rs 58 lakh spent on an event to commemorate Chief Minister Pramod Sawant completing two years in office. At the same time money is not reaching the people. Money to be disbursed under social sector schemes has not been paid in months,” Adv Ferreira said.
“I showed a separate list under which more than 41 crore has been spent, besides what has been spent via the department of Information and Publicity.
As per the Chief Minister’s reply, the Goa government has spent around Rs 13 crore on the opening and closing ceremonies to commemorate the 60th year of Goa’s Liberation, in which the Prime Minister and President were present, Rs 9 crore on the national women’s parliament, around Rs 6-crore on the recently concluded World Ayurveda Congress Rs 3 crore on a Save Soil programme organised by Sadguru’s Isha Foundation, among its main expenditures.
“How many more events the Government was planning to hold and how much intended to spend in the balance period by 31 March 2023 for events directly or indirectly by or through DIP,” Adv Ferreira questioned as a Started Question.
As per information available with me, On 10 October, 2021, the Govt tendered 3.60 crores for “Outdoor advertising” out of which it paid Rs. 2,82 crores knowing well that elections were imminent and Code of Conduct was to be enforced and despite this propaganda, myself and several others managed to win. Why should we not see this as election propaganda at the cost of the State exchequer? “Is there no advance planning of events? Is this Government an event Management Company?” he asked.
