The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today alleged that the “beef crisis” in the BJP-ruled Goa was being created to divert the attention of people from controversies like Mahadeyi river water sharing and coal pollution.
State AAP leader Pradeep Padgaonkar alleged that Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar got embroiled in the controversies in order to score “electoral gains and please the BJP top brass”.
“Goenkarponn (Goanness) of communal amity is facing the greatest threat under this government as the chief minister is increasingly becoming answerable to his party president Amit Shah and as a result of which the voice of the people is disregarded by the government,” said Padgaonkar, the Goa AAP general Secretary.
He said people must remain “alert” as “more desperation” would be seen in the run-up to the Karnataka elections.
“They are likely to create such undesirable situations,” the AAP leader said.
The coastal state is facing a beef shortage with traders suspending import of meat from Karnataka alleging harassment by cow vigilantes.
Slaughter houses in neighbouring Karnataka have refused to supply meat till the government takes steps to stop harassment by cow vigilante groups.
The opposition Congress today alleged that many cow vigilantes blocking the entry of trucks carrying beef into Goa had the support of the BJP-led state government.
Goa and Karnataka, two among the three Mahadeyi riparian states, are locked in a dispute over sharing of the river water. Another state is Maharashtra.
The issue is pending before Mahadeyi Water Dispute Tribunal.
Parrikar wrote a letter to Karnataka BJP unit president B S Yeddyurappa in December last year showing willingness to share the river water for drinking purposes.
The letter, viewed as a political gambit in view of the Karnataka polls due later this year, evoked a sharp reaction from Parrikar’s counterpart Siddaramaiah.
The Parrikar government also drew ire of environmentalists and people over growing pollution in the wake of coal mining in the coastal state knwon for its rich ecology.