By IANS,
Panaji : A day after he was replaced as chairman of Goa assembly’s public accounts committee (PAC), leader of opposition Manohar Parrikar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday accused Speaker Pratapsing Rane of being biased.
Speaking at an emergency meeting of the state party executive, Parrikar said Rane, 73, was biased as a speaker and accused him of trying to save his son Vishwajit Rane — health minister in the Congress-led government — from being exposed in a health ministry scam.
He also charged the speaker of trying to protect himself over a mining and a special economic zone (SEZ) scam.
“The PAC report documents the illegal mining scam as well as the SEZ scam which runs into several hundred crores of rupees. Both scams occurred when Rane was chief minister,” Parrikar said.
The speaker earlier likened Parrikar to “Dhritrashtra”, the blind king from the epic “Mahabharat”.
“The speaker has become Dhritrashtra, who was blinded by the love for his sons… His son is involved in illegal mining as well as health scams. His behaviour in the assembly was completely biased in favour of his son and his government,” Parrikar said.
Parrikar was heading the assembly’s PAC and had led the committee’s probe into Goa’s illegal mining involving Rs.3,500 crore, until he was replaced by the speaker late Friday night by another BJP legislator.
The speaker also refused to table the PAC report during the two-day monsoon session of the assembly, claiming he needed time to read it.