india

Updated: Jun 23, 2019 12:46 IST

Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant visited Baraulia village here on Saturday with the region’s new MP and union minister Smriti Irani and said if Smriti wanted, he would work for the development of the village.

Baraulia is among the two villages in Amethi – Hariharpur being the other – that were adopted by Sawant’s predecessor late Manohar Parrikar when he had become a Rajya Sabha MP from UP soon after being named the country’s defence minister.

After Parrikar’s death, Surendra Singh, the ex-village head of Baraulia who had raised the demand for a statue in memory of Parrikar, was killed on May 25, two days after Smriti Irani’s win.

For Pramod, an Ayurvedic medical practitioner and lawmaker from Sanquelim assembly of Goa, visit to Baraulia would be more of an emotional trip. That’s because Baraulia was the first of the two villages that Parrikar had adopted in Amethi in 2015.

“I too am a party worker. Death of a dedicated party cadre is always painful. I had come here to express my condolences to the bereaved family,” he said while delving on the emotional bond Parrikar shared with the village.

“If Smriti ji tells us, we would definitely like to associate ourselves with development work in the village, especially those related to education and other sectors,” he said in Baraulia.

Both the villages had undergone dramatic makeover since Parrikar adopted them as roads, schools, solar lights, skill development camps came up and beautification of government primary schools and ponds was done too.

Sawant recalled that in 2014 Lok Sabha poll campaign too, he had spent around 22 days in Amethi. Ironically it was around this time that Parrikar had come to Amethi and spotted children without footwear. In a TV programme after Parrikar’s death Smriti had said so.

“Parrikarji had subsequently returned to Goa and got 25,000 footwear collected through donations and sent them to the villagers,” Irani said in TV show.

In 2019 Lok Sabha polls Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi had raised the issue, accusing Smriti of insulting the residents of Amethi. Reminded of the footwear row, Sawant said, “Our goal should be to serve the society. It had been Parrikar ji’s goal and it’s mine too. The rest is immaterial,” he said.