PARRIKAR GOING TO US FOR TREATMENT
GOA CM DEVELOPS ‘SOME COMPLICATIONS’, WILL BE BACK IN A WEEK
PANAJI: Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar was scheduled to travel to the United States on Wednesday evening for a medical checkup barely a week after his return from there. “His family wishes that he should be checked by the doctors who treated him initially, which is why he is travelling to the US. I have spoken to him and he has said that he is feeling fine. I do not expect that he will be away for too long, but we will see,” Parrikar’s press secretary Rupesh Kamat said.
The state cabinet was informed about Parrikar’s plan to travel to the US on Wednesday.
Union minister and North Goa MP Shripad Naik told reporters they will request the party’s national leadership to make an alternate arrangement in Parrikar’s absence. “The party will take cognizance immediately. The party will think about what measures can be put in place to improve the administration.”
Goa Forward Party leader Vijai Sardesai, who is part of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in Goa, said Parrikar’s absence had affected administration especially since the chief minister holds most of the important portfolios. But he added the “people would understand.”
South Goa MP Narendra Sawaikar, who met Parrikar in Mumbai, said the CM was abso- lutely comfortable. “Absolutely no problem. He is just going to the US to take a second opinion regarding his digestion issues. Otherwise, there is absolutely no issue. He is okay,” he said.
Parrikar had set up a threemember cabinet advisory committee during his three-month absence earlier this year. He continued to personally monitor and clear files from US. Parrikar had returned to Goa from the US on August 22. He was hospitalised at Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital a day later after he went there for routine tests. Parrikar had left for US for his second follow-up visit on August 10. The CM underwent three-month treatment for a pancreatic ailment at a hospital in the US. Parrikar was first hospitalised on February 14 over food poisoning. Officials had then said chief minister would be “unavailable for next two days as he has to undergo a routine health checkup in Mumbai.”