manohar parrikar health Photo Credit: PTI Goa CM Manohar Parrikar

Panaji: Ailing Goa CM Manohar Parrikar was targetted by several hundreds of people as they marched to his private residence on Tuesday evening demanding his resignation. In turn, they also demanded a "full-time" chief minister for the state.

Citing that the governance in Goa has suffered a massive blow due to Parrikar's absence, the protesters came together under the banner of 'People's March For Restoration of Governance'. Further, they gave the CM an "ultimatum" of 48 hours.

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Congress, along with other political parties including Shiv Sena and NCP also supported the protest march which was started by social activists and NGOs. Their chief demand was for Parrikar to resign since he has been unwell and undergoing treatment for a while now.

They also said that the governance suffered since Parrikar was ill and hospitalised for over nine months. Deputy Collector Shashank Tripathy informed that Parrikar refused to meet the protesters due to his ill-health. They were stopped by the police about 100 metres from the residence of the CM.

"We need a full-time CM. For the last nine months, the state administration has collapsed. The CM is not meeting his own ministers and MLAs," social activist and leader of the march, Aires Rodrigues was quoted as saying.

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Rodrigues further said that all the people who came to protest also wanted to know about the CM's health condition and warned of launching a statewide agitation if Parrikar doesn't step down within 48 hours. Several Congress leaders, including the party's Goa unit chief Girish Chodankar, Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, MLAs Digambar Kamat, Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, Antonio Fernandes, Francis Silveira also took part in the march.

Parrikar is suffering from pancreatic cancer. He has been recuperating at his private residence since October 14 after he was discharged from AIIMS, New Delhi.

