CM confident of clean sweep

Brags of Congress-UPA achievements


PANJIM: Chief Minister Digambar Kamat yesterday said that his aim was to win both the Lok sabha seats and expressed confidence that sitting MP Francisco Sardinha would win the South Goa seat by a minimum margin of 50,000 votes.
He also claimed that Congress-NCP alliance candidate Jitendra Deshprabhu would wrest the North Goa seat by a minimum margin of 25,000 votes.
Speaking to reporters in the presence of GPCC president Subhash Shirodkar, Sardinha and Deshprabhu a few hours before campaigning came to end, Kamat said that during his interaction with the electorate, he tried to strike a cord with them and ensure victory of both the candidates.
He said that the response from the electorate through the state was tremendous and that the people wanted the UPA government to come back to power at the Centre.
He said that, during campaigning he told the people the benefits Goa availed from the UPA government and that his government was able to solve lot of problems with the help of the Centre.
The Chief Minister said that the highlight of the fortnight-long campaign was that they did not do any negative campaign but focused on positive campaigning explaining to the people why they should vote Congress and what the party had done for their welfare.
He said that the UPA government helped the state to upgrade the existing Dabolim airport by sanctioning Rs 350 crore, notifying land acquisition for Mopa international airport, approved ESI super-speciality hospital at Margao at a cost of Rs 60 crore, which would benefit about 40,000 workers setting up of a full-fledged Doordarshan studio and funds for construction of roads and bridges on NH-17.
If the UPA government returns to power then the Goa government would be able to do much more progress, Kamat said adding that he had always taken decisions in the interest of the common man.
Reiterating that his government was committed for the welfare of the ‘aam admi’, the Chief Minister said that he even walked two kilometers to meet the villagers from remote Amdai village in Sanguem taluka to convince them to exercise their voting right during elections. He said that villagers had threatened to boycott Lok Sabha elections in protest against the failure to construct a road for them.
Kamat claimed that he had visited villages, which no other chief minister had gone and had meetings with the people from remote villages of Cavrem-Pirla in Quepem and Agonda in Canacona taluka even during midnight.
He also recalled his initiative in helping an electricity lineman from Fatorda after he lost both his hands due to electrocution while on duty and fitting him a mechanised hand costing Rs 4.75 lakh besides, offering him a job in the electricity department at Margao.