Goa Pradesh Congress Committee on Friday demanded to investigate Rs 208 crores contract given to a private company here for beach safety and cleng and bring the lifeguards under its ambit.
"The 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 vindicated our stand about the gross irregularities in the Rs 141 Crore Beach Safety and Lifeguarding Services contract of Tourism Department," Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president Girish Chodankar said in a press release.
"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," it added.
Congress also demanded that the government should investigate where and how the amount of Rs.141 crores paid to that private company in the 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 the latest safety equipment and gadgets. The revelations by the lifeguards that basic equipment such as Walkie Talkie sets are not provided to them have exposed the fact that a huge amount of Rs.141 crores have not been utilised for the purpose and need to be investigated," the release stated.
"The silence of Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant even after we exposed the irregularities in Rs.141 crores Lifeguarding Scam has 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," it added.
He further asked the Chief Minister to 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 June 30, 2019.
"We support the lifeguards and demand that the government should immediately take steps to take them under its ambit and regularise their services. We also demand that Rs.67 crore Beach Cleng contract earlier awarded to the same contractor must be investigated," he stated.
( With inputs from ANI )