Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar favours smaller states

PANAJI: Favouring smaller states, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar has said that Goa is able to do a lot for its people because it has attained full statehood.

"I am of the opinion that small is beautiful," Parsekar told PTI last night in an interaction with the premier news agency union's Annual General Meeting.

He was replying to a question on if he is in favour of creating smaller states and challenges faced by them.

Highlighting advantages of smaller states, Parsekar recalled that when Goa was created in 1961, the then Chief Minister opened large number of government schools whenever a demand for it was raised by people from village to community level.

"This would not have been possible if Goa got merged with Maharashtra or became a Union Territory," he said, adding that "otherwise, we would have to look at Mumbai or Delhi for getting things done in either of the two situations."

Parsekar, who was a teacher by profession in his earlier days, said that because of attaining full statehood, Goa is able to do a lot for its people.

Referring to the challenges of small states, Parsekar said it is a challenge to meet people's aspirations as you are accessible very easily to them, which may not be the case with bigger states.

"But despite that I can definitely say that small is beautiful," he said.

However, when asked about creating Vidarbha out of Maharashtra, as promised by BJP in the run-up to the last state polls, he said, "I normally prefer not to comment on the matters of other states."