Latest news with #GoaCommandAreaDevelopmentAct
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
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. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now 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. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now 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.
Time of India
07-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
State ignores its agri policy, hands over 3.3L sqm irrigation land to casino firm
Panaji: Two months after govt's much avowed Goa State Amritkal Agriculture Policy, 2025 was introduced to revitalise farming and make the state self-sufficient, chief minister Pramod Sawant-led govt with a stroke of a pen on Wednesday denotified 3.3 lakh sqm of the Tillari command area at Dhargalim to pave the way for Delta Corp Ltd , a casino gaming company, to set up an integrated integrated resort project that will come up at the command area of the Tillari irrigation project comprises three hotels, a convention centre, a multiplex, a retail area, a water park, banquet facilities and a children's entertainment area, among addition to handing over the land that could be irrigated, state govt also waived off Rs 5.5 crore sought by the water resource department, terming it as 'notional'.The proposal to denotify 3.3 lakh sqm of the notified command area was moved by the Goa Investment Promotion and Facilitation Board (Goa IPB).The Tillari irrigation project is an interstate project taken up at a cost of Rs 1,465 crore to irrigate a command area of 14,521Ha in Goa. The dam is located in Maharashtra, and the canals are constructed in Maharashtra and from the dam is supplied for irrigation and drinking purposes through two canals, namely the Left Bank Main Canal (LBMC) and the Right Bank Main Canal (RBMC).The LBMC supplies water to an area of 10,267Ha, which is spread across the talukas of Bicholim and Bardez, while the RBMC irrigates an area of 4,254Ha, which is spread across Pernem has notified 14,521Ha of land under the command area development and water resources management programme of the Tillari irrigation project, under Section 17 of the Goa Command Area Development Act, 1997, and Rules 2022, the state cabinet resolved to declare 3.8 lakh sqm in Pernem as an investment for Delta Corp without consulting the WRD or seeking inputs from April 17, 2023, the Goa IPB issued a conversion sanad for 3.3 lakh sqm, while 40,000sqm was excluded from the conversion sanad. Fees amounting to Rs 28 crore were paid by Delta less than a month, on May 9, 2023, Goa IPB cleared the proposal from Delta Corp seeking it as an investment promotion area for setting up an integrated resort development .On Feb 9, 2024, the Goa IPB issued a licence to Delta Corp for setting up the integrated resort development with a construction fee of over Rs 10 crore for a final area of 3.3lakh sqm. It also submitted a proposal to the WRD to denotify the land conversion of land was done under the Goa Land Revenue Code and also granted technical clearance under the town and country planning (TCP) regulations. This was permitted only upon the applicant paying an amount of Rs 28 crore towards the conversion fees.'Therefore, there is no loss as such to the WRD of Rs 5.5 crore for which they sought a waiver, as the applicant company compensated govt towards the change of user by more than five times the amount spent by govt,' the cabinet said.
Time of India
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Land-filling in Tillari command area: TCP dept gets HC notice
Panaji: The high court of Bombay at Goa on Wednesday called for responses from govt authorities in a PIL related to the illegal filling of low-lying paddy fields in the Tillari Irrigation Project command area at PIL challenges the validity of the Goa Town and Country Planning (Composition of Offences) Rules, 2022, and the compounding order passed by the department in Feb this year, where the department compounded the illegal land-filling .The petitioner, Vinal Diulkar, submitted to the high court that despite the illegal land-filling, the TCP board proceeded to compound the illegality without conducting a site inspection and without following procedure, which is evidence that compounding rules are being who resides just one kilometre away from the illegal construction, submitted to the high court that the paddy fields belong to the comunidade of Calangute and its tenants, and that the affected area falls under the command area that is protected under the Goa Command Area Development Act, 1997, and Rules, Feb compounding order was issued despite land-filling occurring to a depth of over 1.5m, three times the permissible limit of 50cm under Section 17A provisions, he submitted that there was no finding in the compounding order regarding the depth of land-filling at the site, which would impact deciding the severity of the offence sought to be compounded.
