Cong slams leasing of Taleigao stadium

Panaji: Congress held a protest on Saturday criticising BJP-led govt’s move to lease out the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee stadium.

The party’s state president, Amit Patkar, said that the decision proves that BJP just wants to sell all the assets of the country and the state.

Patkar said that the stadium at Taleigao was built to promote a sporting culture in Goa.

“We condemn the cabinet decision to lease out this stadium. The stadium is named after the first president of the RSS, and despite this, BJP govt has decided to hand it over to a private player. This shows how much respect BJP has for things,” said Patkar.

The party has demanded that the cabinet decision should be revoked.

The party said that if state govt is not stopped from handing over sporting infrastructure to private players, the Sawant-led govt will go ahead and lease out other govt-owned infrastructure.

Sawant said that leasing out the stadium would bring in additional revenue for the state.

Patkar said the land on which the stadium was built belongs to Goa University, and thus the leasing out of the university land will set a wrong precedent.