After his dubious role as Goa’s worst ever very dictatorial Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly, the RSS Pracharak Rajendra Arlekar will now also be remembered as the Forest Minister who destroyed the Coconut Tree besides for vested interests comprising Goa’s environment.
The BJP last year stripped Alina Saldanha of the Forest and Environment portfolios while bestowing them on Rajendra Arlekar so that they could comfortably further ruin Goa’s remains. For Rajendra Arlekar politics has been a very lucrative business and his tale from Rags to Riches says it all. Rajendra Arlekar by a sale deed dated 26th August 2013 purchased a 500 sq mt plot at Porvorim on a payment of Rs 72 lakhs besides paying an amount of Rs 2,52,000 towards stamp duty and a further Rs 2,16,280 as registration and processing fees of that Sale deed. In an affidavit filed by Rajendra Arlekar before Goa’s Chief Electoral officer on 9th February 2012 he had shown his income for the year 2010-2011 as Rs 2,76,671 and that of his wife Anagha Deshpande Arlekar who is a school teacher as Rs 5,87,186. So the purchase of the plot a year later for 72 lakhs was clearly disproportionate to his last known source of income. Rajendra Arlekar in that affidavit had shown his total liabilities by way of loans etc as Rs 30,54,314 and further liabilities by way of Government dues as Rs 2,64,734 but in his statement of assets and liabilities filed over a year later on on 31st July 2013 before the Goa Lokayukta his liabilities were shown as Nil. Rajendra Arlekar should explain as to how within a short span of just over a year after becoming Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly he was able to clear his huge liabilities of Rs 30,54,314 and also liabilities by way of Government dues of Rs 2,64,734. Rajendra Arlekar in his affidavit on 9th February 2012 had shown his total income for the year 2010-2011 as a mere Rs 2,76,671 which prima facie reveals that Rajendra Arlekar concealed the real income earned by him from his HP petrol pump dealership “Om Shree Vetobaa” at Vasco. Rajendra Arlekar has continued with that Hindustan Petroleum petrol pump dealership illegally after becoming an MLA of the Goa Legislative Assembly. Clause 7 of the Hindustan Petroleum guidelines specifically requires that a person selected for the dealership of the petrol pump shall be paying attention towards day-to-day working of the petrol pump by personally managing the affairs of the petrol pump. The guidelines further mandate that the dealer of the petrol pump shall not be eligible for taking up any other employment. So as soon as Rajendra Arlekar became MLA he was duty bound to surrender the dealership to make way for somebody unemployed. For the irreparable damage the Forest and Environment Minister Rajendra Arlekar is now inflicting on Goa, he needs to be hounded off the political turf into oblivion. Rajendra Arlekar must go, for Goa to live. Aires Rodrigues Advocate High Court C/G-2, Shopping Complex Ribandar Retreat, Ribandar – Goa – 403006 Mobile No: 9822684372 Office Tel No: (0832) 2444012 Email: airesrodrigu...@gmail.com Or airesrodrig...@yahoo.com You can also reach me on Facebook.com/ AiresRodrigues Twitter@rodrigues_aires www.airesrodrigues.com