By IANS,
Panaji : Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has once again locked horns with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government over allotment of land for projects intended for central agencies.
Addressing a press conference at the State Secretariat Wednesday, Parrikar said the Goa government had rejected the demand of the union Railway Ministry to allot land for doubling of the Goa portion of the South Central Railway-operated track from Vasco to Hospet.
“I have rejected the demand for land for this project,” Parrikar said.
The demand for the doubling of the track had come from the industry in Goa, especially the mining traders here, who had hoped that the doubling of the track would help ferrying of ore and cargo to and from Goa to Karnataka in quicker time.
The Railway Board had already sanctioned Rs.2,127 crore for the railway track-doubling project.
Parrikar also said that he had rejected demands by several other central government agencies including the Border Security Force and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which had requested large chunks of land from the state government to set up base camps and residential facilities in the state.
“I am very clear. I will not give any sanction for land allotment to them unless it is really needed for the state,” Parrikar said.
Citing the example of the controversy involving the setting up of a National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Goa, Parrikar said the union ministry for Human Resource Development had asked for 300 acres of land to set up a campus for the institute, which was much more than required.
“It was only after we convinced them that the campus could be built with only 120 acres that they agreed and we allotted them the land,” Parrikar said.
Parrikar, a BJP chief minister, has been at loggerheads with the central Congress-led government over a range of issues like appointment of IAS and IPS officers and allotment of finances for the state ever since he was elected to power in 2012.