VASCO: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Sunday endorsed the candidature of incumbent legislator Carlos Almeida as the BJP candidate from Vasco constituency for the 2017 state assembly election.
At a meeting organised in the port town and attended by Union Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Naik, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, South Goa MP Narendra Sawaikar, Minister for Forest and Environment Rajendra Arlekar, BJP state unit president Vinay Tendulkar and other party leaders, Parrikar and Almeida were felicitated by the Vasco BJP mandal members.
Parrikar said that the recent surgical strike has helped the Indian army personnel to boost their morale. “I have given powers to the army at the borders to fire in case anybody is found with weapons,” said Parrikar adding that this would help India restrict infiltration of terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir region.
The Defence Minister said that India has a capability to manufacture weapons on its own. He mentioned about the Ordnance Factories Board (OFB), which consists of Indian Ordnance Factories, functioning under the department of defence production at Jabalpur where manufacturing of indigenously-developed 155 mm ‘Dhanush’ artillery guns is undertaken for the army.
Welcoming the Prime Minister’s demonetisation move, Parrikar said that it will help in stopping terror funding and curbing black money. He appealed to the people of Goa to give clear mandate to BJP during the forthcoming assembly election.
Assuring to resolve the problem of fishing jetty at Khariwada, Almeida urged the Defence Minister to consider people of Vasco when filling up vacancies in defence establishments like the Indian Navy and organisations like Goa Shipyard Limited and Mormugao Port Trust.