Tillari command area project approval to Delta Corp not final: Goa CM

Porvorim: Opposition MLAs on Tuesday in the assembly expressed disappointment and alarm over state govt’s decision to denotify 3.3 lakh sqm of Tillari command area at Dhargalim to pave the way for Delta Corp Ltd, a casino company, to set up an integrated resort.

Chief minister Pramod Sawant assured the House that the decision of the Investment Promotion Board (IPB) to approve the project is only subject to the approval of the Tillari irrigation development board’s Command Areas Development (CAD) board.

Water resources minister Subhash Shirodkar said that a meeting of the board will be held before Aug 15. “CAD has powers to denotify such land. IPB has given approval for the project, but it is subject to CAD board approval,” said the CM.

Leader of opposition Yuri Alemao said the govt decision to denotify the land was illegal. “The command area was marked to preserve water. But the cabinet decision was taken without following due process, without taking permission from the CAD board. It is a procedural violation. Why was the CAD board not taken into confidence? The gazette dated Nov 25, 2021, already speaks of shifting of casino and resorts and entertainment zone in the land. Will it be denotified? All procedures have been done and now the minister is saying a meeting will be held,” said Alemao.

Shirodkar said WRD had no role in selling the land to Delta Corp as alleged by the opposition and that farmers first sold the land and it exchanged hands before being bought by Delta Corp. He said that later the IPB approved the proposal, but the area has not been denotified yet.

Quepem MLA Altone D'Costa asked whether the transfer of the land for use by Delta Corp will be done if the CAD board decides in its favour. “The entire approval is sub judice and is before the high court in a PIL,” said the CM.

“It is a hospitality project and it is their own land. We have not given them land. They purchased the land. They have come with it to the IPB. As Goa is a tourism state, IPB has to decide on such tourism project proposals,” said the CM.

Benaulim MLA Venzy Veigas said that the state’s agriculture policy is pointless if such lands are open to conversion for other uses. “In many areas, people have sought to sell land initially marked as command area. All command area land is not necessarily suitable for irrigation. We marked the area but had not seen it on the ground. Some are rocky areas,” Shirodkar said.