Oppn slams govt for spending Rs 677 crore on events since 2022

Porvorim: Opposition leader Yuri Alemao on Monday said that since 2022, state govt spent over Rs 46 lakh every day to organise different types of events, which put a burden of over Rs 677 crore on the exchequer.

Chief minister Pramod Sawant said state govt will take an interest-free loan of around Rs 500 crore from central govt for capital expenditure.“From 2022 till date, state govt spent Rs 677 crore organising different events, which is around Rs 46 lakh per day. When the PM visited Goa, Rs 13 crore was spent to organise, ‘Vikasit Goem, Viksit Bharat’, and Rs 6.5 crore was spent on the swearing-in ceremony,” Alemao said, and demanded that govt stop organising such events.“Now, in the election year, govt has announced, ‘Sarkar tumcha dhari’ (Govt at your doorstep), but ‘lok mhonnta te zale bhikari’ (people say they have become paupers),” Alemao said and added that govt should also stop taking loans. Sawant, however, clarified that govt hadn’t taken loans to organise the events.When Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas said loans taken by state govt since 2017 had risen to Rs 18,000 crore, Sawant said he had kept the borrowing within limits.

“The debt-to-GSDP ratio was brought down to 27% from 30%,” the CM said.Viegas said that on loans obtained from the market, the state has to pay a principal of Rs 3,300 crore and interest of Rs 814 crore till 2031, whereas Centre provides an interest-free loan for 50 years. Sawant said Goa has already taken a Rs 4,148 crore interest-free loan from Centre.