Calangute: Calangute MLA and Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo has said that the entire demand for scrapping of Planning and Development Authorities was politically motivated.
“I have a voice recording of a person who says that we should take this agitation against PDA to logical conclusion. It is not to scrap the PDAs but to benefit one person Agnel Fernandes,” Lobo said.
He said that handful of people who have been opposing him right from the beginning of his political career were behind the agitation. “There are only handful of people who have been opposing me from the beginning are behind the agitation,” said Lobo.
Responding to a question, he said only 200 people from his constituency had gone for supporting the agitation against PDA. “Rest of the people are not opposing PDA. The areas like Arpora-Nagoa which are fast developing should be under PDAs so that the planned development can take place,” he said.
Lobo said that if really people don’t want, he is ready to drop the areas under PDA.
Breaking his silence on other issues, Lobo has said that it was chief minister Manohar Parrikar who stopped him from opposing the formation of Greater Panaji Planning and Development Authority (GPPDA).
“The formation of GPPDA was entirely a political decision. I had opposition to it because some of the areas in North Goa PDA were being included in it,” Lobo said.
He stated that it was at the behest of Parrikar that he decided to withdraw his dissent on the formation of new GPPDA which is headed by Anatanasio Monserratte.
“Parrikar asked me not to speak against GPPDA,” he said.
The BJP legislator also said that if Parrikar was there present in the state, the statue of Dr Jack Sequeira would have been installed in the assembly complex. “Parrikar was convinced about the statue of Dr Jack Sequeira,” he said.
