Will ask MLAs to return money spent on Brazil junket: Parsekar

Panaji, March 11 (IANS) Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar will personally speak to ruling lawmakers and urge them to return the money they spent on a junket to Brazil during the World Cup last year back to the state exchequer.

Parsekar said on late Tuesday that his office had been in receipt of a communication from the Sports Authority of Goa (SAG), a nodal agency which had co-ordinated the junket to the FIFA World Cup for four ruling MLAs including one cabinet minister, about the non-repayment of dues by the legislators.

"I will speak to them. They will pay," Parsekar told IANS.

In June last year, seven ruling lawmakers from Goa, including three ministers had triggered nationwide controversy, by getting the SAG to book a fully-funded junket to the World Cup in Brazil worth nearly Rs. 1 crore.

The furore caused by the state-funded junket in the local as well as national media had forced three Brazil-bound legislators to drop out of the junket, while the rest had promised to refund the money to the Sports Authority of Goa (SAG), which was co-ordinating the 'eductaion tour', spent on the junket on their return.

The lawmakers had also requested the government-run sports agency for a Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) mechanism to return the money.

SAG sources indicate that around Rs.20 lakh are yet to be recovered from the four lawmakers, who eventually made the trip.