CM asks Centre’s aid to revive 10k hectares of khazan lands

Panaji: Chief minister Pramod Sawant on Saturday urged the Centre to provide financial assistance to revive 10,000 hectares of khazan paddy lands to provide livelihoods to people by boosting basic activities such as agriculture, pisciculture, and salt panning.
Sawant attended the 10th governing council meeting of the NITI Aayog at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sawant said that the state’s economy is growing at 9.17% with its per capita income nearly 2.5 times the national average.
“In Goa, there are about 10,000 hectares of khazan paddy lands affected by saline water due to lack of maintenance,” Sawant said. “There is an urgent need to revive khazan lands by undertaking repairs and maintenance of outer and inner bunds, sluice gates, and desilting of poiems (small creeks) on a large scale in a planned/phased manner. Govt of Goa needs large-scale funding to take up these activities.”
Sawant added, “If revived, this would bring thousands of hectares of land under cultivation, provide livelihood to people by boosting basic activities such as agriculture, pisciculture, and salt panning, and also maintain/protect the fragile coastal ecosystem in estuaries.”
The CM said Goa has launched the State Amrit Kaal Agricultural Policy, 2025, a comprehensive strategy aimed at modernising farming, promoting sustainability, and ensuring farmer prosperity.
“This policy aligns with ‘Viksit Bharat 2047’, focusing on innovation, environmental conservation, and economic growth,” Sawant said.
He said govt has started the work of preparing a vision document on ‘Viksit Goa @ 2047’ based on five pillars —physical infrastructure, economic infrastructure, social infrastructure, institutional infrastructure, and environmental infrastructure.
“Keeping in view the values of socio-economic and demographic indicators of Goa, I am confident that Goa will achieve the targets under Viksit Goa by 2037, 10 years before the target given by Govt of India,” Sawant said.
On the education sector, Sawant said that the National Education Policy, 2020, has been implemented in Goa by integrating vocational education with general education to make learning more flexible, inclusive, and skill-based.
On the health sector, Sawant said Goa boasts a well-developed healthcare infrastructure. Institutional deliveries are 99.7%, and the state is aiming to bring the present infant mortality rate of 10.73 infant deaths per thousand live births to a single digit.
Sawant said that Goa’s strategic location on the west coast of India and the proximity of a well-integrated maritime ecosystem for major shipping routes make it easy to increase the span of maritime services to global shipping.