Goa Forward Party president demands CM's resignation over high unemployment

Goa Forward Party President Vijai Sardesai has demanded the resignation of chief minister Pramod Sawant while presenting a report made by the NITI Aayog to him.

The Goa Forward Party leader said in a statement that according to the presentation made by NITI Aayog to the CM, unemployment in Goa has ranked third highest in the country at 10.5 per cent rate in 2021-22.

"The data is compiled through the Periodic Labour Force Survey by the Ministry of Statistics. These figures are conservative. The reality is much higher than Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) figures," he said in the statement.

 

According to data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, the MoM average unemployment for Goa in the year 2021-22 is 14.9. Both these agencies cannot be wrong about Goa's unemployment scenario, Sardesai said.

In an official statement from the Goa Forward Party President Vijai Sardesai said that the NITI Aayog presentation also revealed that the fiscal deficit for 2022-23 is higher than the limit set by the 15th finance commission of 3.5 per cent.

If this is true then Dr Sawant in his budget speech misled the house when he claimed that the fiscal deficit was within the 4 per cent limit that Sawant claimed was set by the commission, Sardesai said.

The presentation also revealed that Goa was spending 29 per cent less than what was promised in the budget, that agricultural and fishing production in Goa has been declining during the last few years, and that there is an increased prevalence of stunting and underweight in children and increase in the prevalence of anaemia amongst them.

Former Deputy CM Sardesai said: "The NITI Aayog had also noted a low Ease of Doing Business Score for Goa indicating that businesses too have to spend a lot of time to comply with the regulations of the state. How is it that even after setting up the single window Investment Promotion Board and providing several services on Goa Online, Goa is ranked 24th in India?"

Goa ranks 28th in terms of the number of MSMEs having 70,000 micro-enterprises, 1,000 small enterprises and zero medium enterprises, he added.

The presentation also observed that between 2017 and 2021, Goa's Debt/GDP ratio has increased by 25 per cent indicating a burden on long-run state own funds, High Primary deficits that indicate short-run borrowing requirements are higher (interest on loans) and less focus is on capital expenditure (Long Run development).

The observations further hold true given the fact that the government is closing down schools rather than opening new ones, projects such as Panjim and Margao court buildings, Kundaim hospitality college, etc are taking twice as long to complete even though the government is regularly borrowing Rs 100 crores twice a month, Sardesai said.

In other words, because of the government's fiscal policy, the people of Goa will be burdened with heavy taxes in order to repay the State's debt while the development of the State will slow down.

Sardesai further said: "NITI Aayog is a think tank of "experts" handpicked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and was established as a replacement for the Planning Commission. The opinions of NITI Aayog thus must be considered as the opinions of the Modi Government. Chief Minister Sawant must accept that his policies have failed and he must resign immediately or BJP High command should sack him.