Luizinho indicted in EDC racket

| 16 December 2004 22:55 IST

Goa’s former chief minister Luizinho Faleiro has been indicted in a financial racket worth over Rs 100 crore, by a judicial commission headed by Justice M L Pendse.

Mr Faleiro, also the state Congress president, has dismissed the inquiry commission findings, terming it as match fixing.

The local Bharatiya Janata Party government, headed by Manohar Parrikar, had instituted an inquiry in January this year to probe into the alleged irregularities in the state-run Economic Development Corporation.

Both Mr Parrikar and Mr Faleiro had made allegations of financial irregularities in the EDC against each other. As a result, the inquiry commission had been appointed to probe into the tenure of both, Mr Parrikar as the finance minister and Mr Faleiro as the industries minister, from 1995 to 2003.

The state-run financial institution, set up to grant loans to the industries, was earlier handled by the industries department. Later on, it was taken over by the finance department.

The Pendse commission has thus pointed out several irregularities during Mr Faleiro’s tenure in disbursing loans to the industrial units and also settling the loans through one-time settlement rather than strictly following the recovery procedure.

The report states, “there is a positive evidence to indicate that these illegalities and irregularities were committed at the behest of minister Faleiro and with the connivance of Modassir, the managing director of the EDC”.

The commission has also suggested that the EDC be handled by the financial experts rather than politicians and necessary steps be taken to revamp the EDC functioning.

After accepting the commission report, the cabinet has now handed over the report to the home department to act further.

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More robbers and youll have voted for them

- Aurel, Goa | 01 st January 2011 05:07