PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant who had dashed off to the national capital on Thursday managed to eke out a verbal but solid commitment of support for hosting the long overdue National Games, besides other development initiatives from Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Sawant who had a lengthy meeting with Sitharaman in Delhi on Friday, said that the Union finance minister had assured support of the Centre for the National Games, due to be hosted by the State in October.
“Discussed various issues related to the development of Goa. Union Minister has assured to extend the support from the Union Govt for various initiatives of the Govt. of Goa including the National Games,” Sawant said in a post on X in which he also posted a picture of him in the meeting with Sitharaman.
"We have asked for support from the Central government for the National Games. She has assured us of support," Sawant added.
Additionally, Sawant also had a meeting with Union Sports Minister Anurag where the preparations for the National Games were discussed.
The discussions with Thakur, who additionally holds the Information and Broadcasting portfolio, also dealt with the issues related to this year's edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).
"We discussed the preparations of IFFI too. This time too IFFI will be organised with great pomp," Sawant said.
Goa had won the rights to host the 36th edition of the National Games and was initially slated to hold it in 2016. However with most of its infrastructure projects and stadiums incomplete, there were multiple postponements and it was hosted by Gujarat last year with the 37th edition left for Goa to host this year.
Meanwhile Sawant also had a crucial meeting with Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia where the controversial subject of co-existence of the dual airports (Mopa versus Dabolim) was broached.
"Under the Open Skies Policy, we asked for connecting new countries to the Dabolim airport and he has assured us that he'll consider it," Sawant said.
The co-existence of the dual airports at Mopa and Dabolim had been a subject of intense debate in the recently concluded monsoon session of the Goa legislative assembly.
The Sawant government had come under fire from the Opposition for having no plan in place to sustain both airports in the long term and the chief minister had assured to rope in the Union aviation ministry to assist in the task.
