Six years on, govt sets May 25 target for tribal bhavan bids

Margao: Tribal welfare minister Ramesh Tawadkar on Wednesday said govt aims to float tenders for the long-delayed Tribal Bhavan project before May 25 — observed as Prerna Din in the memory of two tribal youth who died in the tribal agitation at Balli, Quepem in 2011.“The project has received technical sanction. The proposal will now go to the expenditure finance committee for approval. Once financial clearance is obtained, tenders will be invited soon,” Tawadkar told TOI.The announcement on the project comes six years after the project received administrative approval.The project, approved in Oct 2019, was originally estimated at Rs 87.5 crore. The revised cost now stands at Rs 97 crore, an increase of over Rs 9 crore, even though construction has not yet commenced and no expenditure has been incurred.Govt has attributed these delays to land disputes and civil litigation pending in multiple courts. These include a civil suit before the district court, Mapusa, a mutation appeal before the joint mamlatdar of Bardez and a partition case before the inspector of land and survey records (ILSR) at Bardez, Mapusa.Despite the legal hurdles, govt recently decided to move ahead with the project based on the opinion of the advocate general.The project has now been handed over to the project/technical cell of the tribal welfare department. A detailed project report (DPR) has been prepared, and officials said the tendering process is “under way”.“A budgetary provision of Rs 15 crore has been made for the financial year 2026,” a senior officer of the tribal department said.Nearly a year ago, Priol MLA Govind Gaude had flagged govt’s failure to deliver on the long-pending tribal bhavan, an issue seen as one of the factors that led to him being dropped from cabinet.“Construction of a tribal bhavan is a long-pending demand of the tribals.The community gave their land for the project. The project has been stalled for the last three years. Why is there no progress? The tribal department should explain,” he had said.