The ruling Bhaatiya Janata Party on Friday sought the arrest and externment, if need be, of Karnataka’s Higher Education Minister R.V. Deshpande and A.S. Patil, MLA, over their “provocative statements” on the demolition of shanties at the Baina beach in Vasco da Gama.
Addressing a press conference on Friday, party spokesperson Damu Naik backed the demolition of illegal shanties that allegedly violated Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules and condemned the statements of Mr. Deshpande and Mr. Patil. He criticised the Goa State unit of the Congress for not backing the government and taking an ambivalent stand.
Mr. Deshpande, who arrived in Goa on Thursday and met Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, had later told presspersons that the demolition of 205 shanties at Baina would be a violation of human rights. Pointing out that the shanties were predominantly of Kannadia migrants, he had said that before taking action against the migrants, the Goa government should remember that 18,000 to 20000 Goan youth were employed in Karnataka, especially in Bengaluru’s IT industry.
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“The government should think on humanitarian grounds and the migrants should be rehabilitated,” Mr. Deshpande had said.
Mr. Patil had come down on the Goa government saying the demolition was illegal. “These shanties have been there before 1995, and that they do not fall under CRZ regulation,” he said. He said he would raise the issue in the Karnataka Assembly too.
Mr. Naik said that Goans were not staying in illegal hutments and shanties in Karnataka, Chief Minister Parsekar said that he should not turn the shanties issue into a Goa versus Karnataka issue.
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Congress criticised for taking an ambivalent stand