PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Thursday said he will initiate a protocol by which the Town and Country Planning Department routes approvals for all big ticket real estate projects to the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) henceforth.
“Henceforth, as the steering committee chairman, I am going to give the suggestion to TCP to bring proposals of mega projects before CMO for approval” Sawant said in a video message which was posted on social media handles of the Department of Information and Publicity.
Sawant said routing such permissions through the CMO is necessary since their nature is inter-departmental and also require nods from other departments to deal with sewerage, water supply among other infrastructural requirements.
Taking all departments on board at the approval juncture is crucial, he said.
Citing the controversies playing out over several days in respect of permissions and approvals granted to the massive 'Bhutani' project in Sancoale, Sawant said he had instructed TCP Minister, Vishwajit Rane, to scrutinise the project and its approvals and if need be shut down the project if any illegalities are found.
“If permissions such as land-use conversions, various other approvals and EC are not proper, we will revoke the permissions. It is okay if the project is aborted,” Sawant said, even as he claimed that the issue of government permissions to the Sancoale project can be traced back to 2007-08.
Thursday's statement of Sawant is being seen as a damage control exercise by him to stem the flak his government has been facing over several weeks from the Opposition, activists and locals protesting against at least three big ticket real estate projects -- DLF at Reis Magos, Abhinandan Lodha project at Karapur-Bicholim and Bhutani in Sancoale.
