PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday assured that projects under the Sagarmala scheme would only be used for passengers and tourism purposes and not to transport materials.
Speaking in the Assembly, Sawant implored people to stop opposing such projects.
“Some people are fuelling agitations by making statements that the Sagarmala projects will be used for coal transportation, but it is not true. Because of opposition from locals, work has been halted on three jetties,” said Sawant.
“If this opposition continues, we will lose an opportunity to seek grants from the Centre. Goa is one of the few states which has got chance to get funds under the Sagarmala projects.”
The chief minister said the State government has begun giving permissions to some projects.
He clarified that the new building which is coming along the banks of the River Mandovi is the Captain of Ports building.
He also informed that the government is building a new building for the Directorate of Museum at Old Goa and central government has already sanctioned Rs 10 crore for it.
Commenting on issues pertaining to education, Sawant said the government will give a 10 percent hike in the salaries to Bal Rath drivers.
He appealed to MLAs to come forward to merge schools which have low numbers of students and assured that the government would provide transport facility to the students.
Sawant also said IAS officers would be given training in Konkani language, adding that such training had been earlier given in 2012.
“The government is trying to have a tie-up with a Mysore-based institution for international standard translation of Konkani into other languages.
