Urgent Tillari board meet demanded over land denotified for casino firm

Panaji: The members of the Tillari Irrigation Development Board have called for an immediate Command Areas Development (CAD) board meeting to discuss state govt’s decision to denotify 3.3 lakh sqm of the Tillari command area at Dhargalim.
Govt’s decision will pave the way for Delta Corp Ltd, a casino company, to set up an integrated resort.
But residents of Dhargalim have strongly opposed the decision and have demanded its revocation.
The Tillari irrigation project is an interstate initiative involving Maharashtra and Goa, built at a huge cost, and Goa govt has notified 14,521ha of land under the Goa Command Area Development Act, 1997.
At a CAD board meeting held on Sep 27, 2024, the insistence was voiced to approve the scheme and have it notified, which the board did.
So the scheme, prepared under Section 17, was finally notified under Section 18(2) of the Goa Command Area Development Act.
“The consequences of this notification are provided in Section 19 of the act, which clearly prohibits the diversion of such land,” CAD board member and MLA Carlos Alvares Ferreira said.
“I am at a loss to understand how the Goa cabinet could bypass the statutory powers vested in the CAD board and agree to denotify such a huge tract of notified Command Area Development Authority (CADA) land. This is without jurisdiction and totally illegal,” Ferreira said.
He added, “When we finished approving the scheme, what can be the rationale or the justification, that too, within a span of about six months from the date of its notification, to denotify it as CADA land? Just because a casino has applied for it?” Ferreira said.
Irrigation command areas directly relate to notified command areas, meant to enhance the agricultural produce in Goa. Thus, this matter also falls in the domain of the WRD minister and the agriculture minister. And yet, this decision appears to directly contravene the state’s agricultural policies and Command Areas Development Act, Ferreira said.
“Based on this set of concerns and the urgency of the matter, I write to request to convene an immediate meeting of the CAD board to discuss the issues raised by me and to enable govt to come clean on the issue in the larger public interest,” a letter sent to the member secretary of the CAD board said.