The ‘œhard-earned money’ of the taxpayers that the media was referring to was actually a good investment which would have given good returns boosting state and national economy via sports tourism.
India is going to host FIFA under 17 World Cup in 2017.
It will be a proud moment for India when the world will be looking descending in Goa to witness the event. It will not only prove to be good for the country in terms of promotion of the sport, it will also help boost India tourism, Goa in particular.
But when the chief minister of Goa Manohar Parrikar decided to send six of his legislators to Brasil to see World Cup on government expenses, all the hell broke loose. The press and electronic media were full of negative coverage for the Goa CM and his men who had received a junket of Rs 89 lakh for the same.
They were criticized for using “hard-earned money of taxpayers” for their “personal entertainment”. The opposition Congress termed the trip a ‘wasteful expenditure’ while seeking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to ‘stop the junket’.
After facing severe outrage and mockery, the Goa ministers silently decided to bear all the expenses of the trip.
Goa Fisheries Minister Avertano Furtado, who is among the six legislators to visit Brasil, said: “The six (of us) legislators met last evening. We decided to go to Brazil on our own without taking money from the state government. We don’t want to spend money from the state treasury. We don’t want to be a burden on the state coffers.”
Little do people know that Goa has declared Soccer as its state sport.
Recently, Goa had hosted the Lusofonia games, which had Brazil as a participating country.
The legislators were not going on an “entertainment trip” but they had a mission in hand – to see the overall arrangement in Brasil and learn from the management so that they can implement the same or improvise over them to provide good facilities during the under 17 world cup in Goa in 2017.
Furtado is a former goalkeeper of Salgaocar Football Club. He was chosen for his familiarity with the game. The others too chosen to be on this trip have their roots in football and have administrative capabilities in addition to that.
As for Congress, it has Commonwealth Games scam inside its closet for which crores were spent to send ministers, consultants and bureaucrats on the official tour to various countries for “research”, yet the scene at the CWG games was horrendous. Congress cannot name a single person who was an expert in the field of athletics or sports who joined that delegation.
The “hard-earned money” of the taxpayers that the media was referring to was actually a good investment which would have given good returns boosting state and national economy via sports tourism.
Do we have to criticize everything that is associated with politics or politicians?
Won’t we think for once?
