Goa to probe mass influx of labourers by Patna-Vasco Express

Source: indiatoday.in

Former Goa Minister Rohan Khaunte on Wednesday expressed concern about hordes of labourers arriving at Goa’s Thivim railway station by the Patna-Vasco Express, while also stating that the immigrants could be used as vote banks by politicians.

Responding to Khaunte’s concerns, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant told the Goa legislative assembly that he had directed the North Goa Collector to probe the mass arrival of labourers by train number 12742 and their whereabouts.

“When a train full of labourers arrives in Goa, there is fear. Labourers come to Goa for work and then they get a plot with help of elements in panchayats, they build a house and then become voters. Where have they come from, what are their antecedents, needs to be checked,” Khaunte told the legislative assembly during Question Hour.

Khaunte’s comment comes days after a video of hundreds of passengers alighting the train number 12742 Patna-Vasco Express at the Thivim railway station in North Goa went viral on social media.

Nationalist Congress Party MLA Churchill Alemao also alleged that the employment ratio between Goans and non-Goans in the state’s casinos was skewed, urging the Chief Minister to ensure that more Goans get employment in the casino industry.

“80 per cent employees of casinos are outsiders. Casinos are needed for revenue, but they have to give jobs to Goans. Most of the jobs are taken by Manipuris and Nepalis,” Alemao said, even as Sawant assured the House that he would direct the state Labour Ministry to examine the issue.

In free fall: BJP gains from Congress implosion in Karnataka and Goa. But in politics nothing is permanent

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

The plummeting of Congress-JD(S) alliance below the halfway mark in Karnataka assembly and the split in Goa Congress legislature party with ten MLAs crossing over to BJP headlined another dismal day in the dwindling fortunes of the grand old party. The coalition government in Karnataka with the unusual arrangement of the rank junior party getting the CM’s post was an absolute repudiation of the electorate’s mandate, which was certainly not for JD(S), to which both BJP and Congress had better claims in terms of seat and vote share.

BJP’s decimation of the Congress-JD(S) alliance in the Lok Sabha polls, winning 25 of Karnataka’s 28 seats, punctured what was an unsustainable ruling alliance anyway. Combined with BJP’s unflagging efforts to unseat the government, the stage for the last act is already set. It is unclear what BJP is offering Congress MLAs who have resigned. Quite a few rebels were cut up over not becoming ministers. But their willingness to resign just a year after winning a hard fought assembly election does reveal how lightly they value their Congress membership and their prospects in the party that is plumbing historic depths.

In contrast, Congress’s ignominy in Goa is linked to the 2017 failure to form a government despite emerging as the single largest party in the assembly. BJP now has a comfortable majority in the house with 27 legislators, and would be in a position to drop its ally Goa Forward Party from the ministry to accommodate the turncoats.

The developments are ominous for Congress and it must pay greater attention to Madhya Pradesh where the government runs on a slender majority with support from SP, BSP and independents. BJP is carrying on with its single-minded pursuit of cornering the opposition, unperturbed by allegations of horse trading. ‘Aya Ram, Gaya Ram’ style politics now seems mostly to be about ‘Gaya Ram’. Yet the influx of Congress leaders into BJP could lead to a situation where those groomed by RSS will not take too kindly to the former leapfrogging to plum positions in BJP governments. Under Modi and Shah BJP is a centralised and tightly run party, working almost as a corporate entity. Entry of a large number of Congressmen may break this up and create new factions.