Panaji: Goa Congress Chief Girish Chodankar has said that decision to go on Strike and further revelations made by the Lifeguards about the ill treatment given to them by their employee M/s Drishti Lifesaving Pvt Ltd has once again vidicated our stand about the gross irregularities in the Rs. 141 Crores Beach Safety and Lifeguarding Services contract of Tourism Department.
“We demand that Government should immediately bring all the lifeguards under its ambit and provide the Beach Safety and Lifeguarding Services with the monitoring from Ex-Armymen or Ex- Naval Officers which will help in bringing discipline and will help in providing secured beach safety to the tourists and locals,” he said.
Chodankar demanded that Government should investigate on where and how the amount of Rs.141 crores paid to M/s Drishti in last five years was utilised by them, as the revelations by Lifeguards have raised questions.
“It is most unfortunate to know that the Lifeguards are not even given clean water to drink during duty hours apart from not providing them with latest safety equipments and gadgets. The revelations by the lifeguards that basic eqipments such as Walkie Talkie sets are not provided to them have exposed the fact that huge amount of Rs.141 crores have not been utilised for the purpose and needs to be investigated,” he added.
chodankar said the photographs of Jeeps deployed by the Contractor on the beaches available on various social media platforms speak volumes. The Jeeps on the beaches themselves need rescue going by their pathetic conditions.
“The silence of Chief Minister Dr. Pramod Sawant even after we exposed the irregularities in Rs.141 crores Lifeguarding Scam have substantiated our claims that the BJP Government is protecting its Tourism Minister and office bearers of the party who are allegedly involved in the scam,” the Congress leader said.
“We once again demand that Chief Minister should clarify who is presently providing the beach safety services on Goan beaches, as the tourism minister has stated in his written reply on 17th August 2019 that contract of M/s Drishti Lifesaving has expired on 30th June 2019,” he added.
Congress also said that they support the lifeguards and demand that Government should immediately take steps to take them under its ambit and regularise their services.
“We also demand that Rs.67 Crore Beach Cleaning contract earlier awarded to the same contractor must be investigated,” he stated.
