Demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry as recommended by Goa Lokayukta into the alleged irregularities in the beach cleaning contract of the department of tourism, the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) on Monday alleged that the Minister for Tourism Manohar ‘Babu’ Ajgaonkar as well as some top officials of the Bharatiya Janata Party are directly involved in the related corruption, and the said matter is a “open and shut case.”
Maintaining that the scam in the beach cleaning contract involves M/s Drishti Lifesaving Pvt Ltd, which has been awarded the contract under GFR-184 followed by 9 illegal renewals, as well as made payments by violating all rules and regulations, including absence of approvals from the department of finance, the GPCC stated that this particular agency was also entrusted with the task of providing beach safety and lifeguard services, in which it has miserably failed.  Incidentally, the beach cleaning and beach safety contracts expired on July 15 and July 30, 2019, respectively.  Addressing a press conference at the Congress House, GPCC president Girish Chodankar said that the department of tourism should immediately stop giving more extensions in beach cleaning work to M/S Drishti Lifesaving Pvt Ltd and award the same to Goans.
“In fact, the Goan agencies should be entrusted with this work, since in the past, as limited amount as Rs 3 crore was annually required for the beach cleaning work by Goans, in comparison to Rs 2.62 crore per 106 days, totalling to a whopping Rs 26.20 crore to M/S Drishti Lifesaving Pvt Ltd, for the entire period of the contract,” he observed. Speaking further, Chodankar said that the new proposal of the department of tourism to award the beach cleaning work to M/s Karnataka Commercial and Industrial Pvt Ltd also smells of another scam, since M/s Darashaw Consultants, which has prepared Rs 38 crore estimate for the same, is a firm incompetent to prepare such estimates.