Naming of Goa road after Parrikar, stirs controversy

The Goa Forward party's attempt to name a road in the South Goa district after former chief minister late Manohar Parrikar has stirred controversy, after the Congress on Saturday demanded that the thoroughfare be named after the state's first woman chief minister Shashikala Kakodkar.

"Instead of Parrikar, Vijai Sardesai should get the Margao Municipal Council to name the road from Arlem to Ravindra Bhavan after Goa's first woman chief minister Shashikala Kakodkar. Her contribution to Goa has been immense," Goa Women's Congress president Pratima Coutinho told a press conference on Saturday. Kakodkar served as chief minister of Goa from 1977-79.

Sardesai's Goa Forward party controls the municipal council in Margao, the South Goa district headquarters and had last week said that the road would be named after Parrikar, on the latter's birth anniversary December 13.

“The road from Arlem to Ravindra Bhavan is the only state of the art road in Goa, with provisions for sewerage, underground cabling, water supply and was constructed under the guidance and funds provided by Parrikar. The Municipal Council has passed a resolution to name the road as Manohar Parrikar road," Sardesai said.

Sardesai's proposition is a prickly one for the ruling BJP, especially because the former deputy chief minister has accused Chief Minister Pramod Sawant as well as the state BJP unit of betraying the legacy of Manohar Parrikar.

Sardesai has also accused the BJP of sidelining the former Defence Minister's son Utpal, from active politics and sacking the late politicians' coterie of officials and party leaders from office.

Sardesai was dropped from the Pramod Sawant cabinet in July this year, after which the Goa Forward party, which he heads, formally withdrew his support from the BJP-led coalition government.