PANAJI
The BJP government has been promising to unlock the SEZ land for the last five years with Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar now back at the helm, Parrikar said that he would renewed efforts in this regard.
"We are trying to work out a thing on SEZ. We want to speak to them, in which we get the land back. More than 38-lakh square metres of land was given. It was given by the Congress government," Parrikar told the House will replying to the discussion on demands for grants to the Industries department.
He insisted that it was the Court who declared the land allocation as illegal, while the Congress-led by Digambar Kamat, said it was he who scrapped the SEZ policy of the State after bowing to public pressure which resulted in the promoters approaching the High Court against his decision.
"The SEZ land was allotted before I was chief minister. But when I was Chief Minister, it was my government who took a policy decision through a cabinet decision to scrap the SEZ policy. Based on that decision show cause notices were sent to them to return the land in exchange for some payment," Kamat offered.
"Since they did not agree they approached the High Court and took it to the Supreme Court which granted a stay," Kamat said.
But Parrikar countered saying that it was the court which deemed the allotment of land as illegal, blaming the Congress for the mess.
"We are trying to get the land released. If it was open, by now 1,000 industries would have come to Goa. We are getting the land back," Parrikar said.
Among his other initiatives, Parrikar said he was reducing open spaces in industrial estates from 15% to 10% as well as increasing the FAR to 60% which would allow more space to be available for industries. He also promised cheaper and more readily available water besides other initiatives to promote the growth of Industries.
