Panaji, The Congress on Sunday reacted sharply to Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant's statement that some NGOs create hurdles in projects, asking his government to introspect on their "anti-democratic" decisions and not blame NGOs, who have protected identity of the coastal state.

Congress Working President Yuri Alemao said that Goans have always struggled to protect and preserve its culture and heritage.

"Goa has a history of agitations. Protests against anti-Goa decisions have always compelled various governments to bend before the people of the state. NGOs have remained on the forefront to protect the identity of Goa. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant must introspect on his anti-democratic decisions before blaming NGOs," he said.

Alemao added that Congress will always remain with the people and will never allow BJP to push its agenda "to hand over Goa to any capitalist lobby".

"It is the high-handedness of the BJP government which has forced the vigilant citizens to approach courts and NGT on various issues like three linear projects, coastal zone management plan, Mhadei water dispute, port limits, mining resumption and many other issues. The BJP government wants to bulldoze the democratic process and impose its agenda on the people," he said.

He said that Congress government in past always respected the sentiments of people and even dared to rollback its own decisions by cancelling the Regional Plan and scraping SEZs in Goa.

"Rather than advising private companies to sit across the table to have a dialogue with NGOs, the Chief Minister must ensure that his government makes decisions by taking people into confidence," Alemao said.

Sawant on Saturday had urged industrialists to have meetings with NGOs, who challenge the government's decisions in court.