Three weeks after leveling allegations of corruption in the Tribal Welfare Department – a portfolio – Art and Culture Minister Govind Gaud organized by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant was removed from the state cabinet on Wednesday.
Goa BJP President Damu Naik told The Indian Express: “The decision was unanimous. It was taken after consultation by the central leadership of the government, party and the party. The party discipline is a necessary”.
Party sources said that the decision to snatch his cabinet post’s Gaud was taken by the Chief Minister soon after last month’s incident. The state leadership was waiting for a node from the leadership of the central party in Delhi.
For some time, the portfolio organized by Goud will be with the Chief Minister, the sources said.
BJP President Naik went to Delhi earlier this month to fulfill the party’s central leadership and presented a report. Naik said that the decision to include someone in the cabinet would be taken “very soon”.
When Gaud, who was organizing the Departments of Sports and Rural Development, exploded in the row, created a jib in alleged corruption in the tribal welfare program in the tribal welfare ministry, as well as in association with the alliance (UTAA) of Joint Tribal Association (UTAA). Ecordinate, it reflects lack of control over administration.
He said: “The construction of the tribal building is a long pending demand of the tribal community. They gave their land for the project … When I was the Tribal Welfare Minister, the foundation stone was laid. The project has come to a standstill. Why is there no progress in the project?”
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Gaud’s comments had inspired a sharp response from the BJP with a warning of “irresponsible statements” from the BJP, the former ministers went into a damage-control exercise, later claiming that he was “wrong” in the media.
A theater actor has often given rise to controversies over the last several years by a theater actor, Gaud, a 53-year-old tribal leader who represents the Proll constituency. In February 2024, Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar accused Goud for his alleged involvement in the misconduct of Rs 26 lakh for organizing cultural programs in South Goa’s Cannakon constituency.
In 2022, Gaud provoked a line, when he defended the decision to allocate the renewal work of the Kala Academy in Panaji without a request process, saying that Mughal Emperor Shahjan had also not given “quotation for the construction of the Taj Mahal, which remained for 390 years”.
In the previous BJP government, Gaud was a minister as an independent MLA supporting the ruling party. After this, he also organized a tribal welfare portfolio along with the Ministry of Arts and Culture. After the later death in 2019, he retained his ministerial berth even after Manohar Parrikar was successful as CM in 2019. Beyond the 2022 assembly elections, Gaud joined the BJP and won the election on his ticket from his prol seat by defeating Deepak Dhawalikar, the president of the Maharashtra Gomantak Party (MGP).
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