VISHWAJEET LASHES AT PARRIKAR

PANJIM: While environmentalists and villagers in the hinterlands are crying hoarse over mining, winning Congress candidate in Valpoi, Vishwajeet Rane on Thursday maintained it was BJP and Opposition leader Manohar Parrikar that were creating unnecessary hype over the activity.

Strengthened by his huge by-poll victory, Rane, answering questions from media persons outside the counting centre in Campal, here, said, “Mining is a hype created by Parrikar. The activity has been going on since the time of first CM Bhausaheb Bandodkar and even before. Even during BJP’s time there was mining.”

The winning candidate asserted there was no problem and vouched for mining as a major revenue earner for the State. The Opposition leader should stop fooling the people and stop false propaganda, he stated.

Further chiding Parrikar, he said, “During his tenure as CM, the Opposition leader only did the International Film Festival of India and was responsible for bringing in the contract system and Pre-Employment Training Scheme to fool the people.”

Rane said Parrikar should stop telling stories to people. “If he thinks he is an IITian, I also have an MBA. I want to tell Parrikar I am there for the people of Satari and Bicholim. I will work for the poor people in Satari,” he mentioned.

Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, who made an appearance outside the counting centre, said Rane had worked single-handedly without his help and the development works he had carried out in the last three years brought him today’s huge victory.

Kamat said with the entry of Vishwajeet and this victory the Congress party had consolidated its position further. People of Satari have spoken, he stated.

However, the losing candidate, BJP’s Santosh Haldankar, who came out of the counting centre at 8.40 am, maintained Rane had to literally work for 15 days in the constituency and use money-power. “He never won on the plank of development. The other factor was we got only 15 days time to work,” he mentioned. Rane has accused the BJP party workers of creating false propaganda in the constituency during the campaigning period.
(Click this link to see the video of 365 news http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVkU6m1h0a0&feature=player_embedded#!)