Supporters of Brazil travel in an open truck, displaying a group photograph of Brazilian players in Bangalore on June 12, 2014
The Goa government has cancelled a controversial Rs 89-lakh junket by six legislators to Brazil at the end of this month to watch the FIFA World Cup that kicked off yesterday.
"We were in the hot seat, so we had to take a decision... we decided we would not spend exchequer's money... we respect people's sentiments," Goa Fisheries Ministers Avertano Furtado told NDTV. He is one of the six politicians who were supposed to travel to Brazil on what the state government had called a "study tour".
The trip had earned serious flak from the Opposition which accused the Manohar Parrikkar-led BJP government of misusing public funds by sanctioning the trip. They also demanded cancellation of the trip, forcing the legislators to, earlier in the day, say that they would pay for the trip.
(Read)But an unimpressed Congress said, "They have made a U-turn. But the government has to come clean on this, in black and white. Congress demands that the notification that the MLAs are going on their own is made public," said Goa Congress spokesman Durgadas Kamat.
Apart from the Fisheries Minister, Goa Sports Minister Ramesh Tawadkar, Power Minister Milind Naik and three MLAs were supposed to travel to Brazil to watch matches to be held at the end of this month.
Defending the trip, Mr Parrikar had said, "The decision has been taken in the interest of Goa, football is our state sport. Some MLAs on the team are ex-footballers."
The delegation, interestingly, had no sportsperson, though the tiny state has given India some of its leading national football stars.
The final of the tournament will be played in Rio on July 13. India is ranked a poor 154 in world football, but lakhs of fans eagerly await the World Cup held every four years.