PANAJI: The Curtorim Congress MLA, Mr Aleixo Reginald Lourenco, on Wednesday, lambasted the Parrikar-led BJP government for not taking the initiative in clearing the dues of the PWD contractors, accusing it of "having blood on its hand."

"Contractors are of all parties, not only of the Congress," Mr Lourenco told media, alleging that PWD contractors’ dues were still not paid.

"Why target the small people? I feel there is some blood on the hands of the government," he said.

Accusing the government of pandering to the large companies, the Congress MLA accused it of not showing the same initiative to "…clear the legitimate dues of the small PWD contractors, which resulted in the suicide of Vishwas Harmalkar. Even as the Union government is working on a plan to help the electricity boards tide over the fund crunch, the state government clears the dues of Reliance Energy at a lightning speed and also cleared the dues of some private parties. I want to know why."

He also wanted the government to take responsibility for the suicide of the PWD contractor, Harmalkar.

"The government is trying to divert the blame by announcing that they were suspending 3 engineers when it should take responsibility for this avoidable death," Mr Lourenco said.

Meanwhile, the Congress party has condemned the gag on the freedom of the press after the recent order not to allow the electronic media to broadcast live from the House and allow photographers only a limited amount of time to take photographs during the upcoming monsoon session of the legislative assembly.

"We condemn the Speaker’s action in not allowing the media to cover live the proceedings," Mr Lourenco said. At Tuesday’s meeting convened with media representatives, the Speaker had directed that they would not be allowed to cover live but would be given feed that they would broadcast.On Wednesday a decision was also taken that photographers would not be allowed inside that was later changed to one-hour per day.