Govt will take legal action against units sitting on ind’l land

Porvorim: The department of industries, trade and commerce will explore legal options to pull up industrial units and investors who took industrial land but failed to commence manufacturing activity, said industries minister Mauvin Godinho on Thursday.

Godinho, who was speaking in the state assembly, said that the manufacturing sector is growing at a decent pace. “There are some units that took land and they are sitting on it. We will take whatever necessary legal action is permissible because land is not for trading. We want real industries to come,” said Godinho.

He responded to concerns raised by the opposition MLAs, who said that most of the projects that were cleared by the Goa Investment Promotion Board were yet to start operations.

“Only 8 projects of the 105 IPB projects are completed. It took 6 years for 8 projects to be completed and this is a poor reflection on the ease of doing business,” said GFP’s Vijai Sardesai.

However, Godinho denied Sardesai’s assessment. “As far as industrial development is concerned, it is moving at a good pace. If we welcomed every project, then land would not be enough. We would be oversaturated. We are being very careful about this,” said Godinho.

Opposition leader Yuri Alemao was also critical about govt’s seriousness in promoting industrial growth