Chief Minister Laxmikant Pareskar on Tuesday said the government of India’s southern Goa state has no plans to set up re-education centres for homosexuals.

Pareskar said this to contradict an earlier statement by one of his ministers.

Ramesh Tawadkar, Sports and Youth Affairs Minister of Goa’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had made the controversial claim a day earlier.

“We will have a centre for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth like Alcoholics Anonymous

“We will train them and [give them] medicine too,’’ he said at the sidelines of an event in the state capital Panaji.

Tawadkar said that he had been “misunderstood” after Indian community expressed outrage at his remarks.

Activists and community leaders said that centres providing counselling and other help to youths were welcome but Tawadkar’s proposal was shocking.

“It is unfortunate that a minister is making such a reprehensible comment,’’ Delhi-based lawyer and rights activist Anand Grover said.

“This is ridiculous. It’s like we’re moving backwards,’’ rights activist Rituparna Borah said.

“A minister should know that homosexuality is not a disease, that it is not abnormal,’’ Revat Mishra, a medical doctor and activist said.

Goa’s opposition Congress party spokesman, Durgadas Kamat said he was reminded of yoga guru Ramdev’s 2013 offer to “cure” homosexuality.

“Everyone has a right to live their life the way they want to,’’ he stressed.

“The group are not suffering from any disease, there is no government policy on ‘normalising’ them,’’ Parsekar was quoted as saying.

Tawadkar claimed he had been talking about the treatment of alcoholics and not the gay community.

India’s gay community faced stigma from a conservative society and colonial-era legislation outlawing gay sex.

Efforts to drop the law have been opposed by leaders of the Hindu, Muslim and Christian communities.