The decision prompted opposition Congress to term the trip a “wasteful expenditure” The decision prompted opposition Congress to term the trip a “wasteful expenditure”

Facing criticism for planning to send his MLAs and ministers to Brazil during the FIFA World Cup as part of a ‘study tour’, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar hit out at the media for ‘creating a negative image about politics.’

Speaking at the Express Technology Sabha, Parrikar said, “The one biggest failure of media is that it created a very negative image about politics.”

The Goa CM seemed to defend his decision to send six of his MLAs to Brazil on taxpayers’ money, “For me, football is a tourism festival. When we host the Under-17 World Cup in 2017, I will recover ten times, may be 100 times, of the amount spent on this tour…because foreigners will come here.”

The Brazil visit of the six MLAs, including ministers Ramesh Tawadkar (Sports), Avertano Furtado (Fisheries) and Milind Naik (Power), sparked a controversy after the state sports department sanctioned Rs 89 lakh for the tour.

Meanwhile, the legislators said that they have decided to themselves foot the bill for the visit without taxing the state exchequer.

The decision had prompted the opposition Congress to term the trip a “wasteful expenditure” while seeking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to “stop the junket”.

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