PANAJI
Kicking off the two-day winter session, Goa Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai, sang paeans about the performance and its agenda for the next year of the Pramod Sawant government in his nearly 80-minute address to the Goa legislative assembly on Thursday amidst a semi-boycott by the Opposition which is miffed that the government has restricted the sitting to just two days.
From Goa’s projected Rs 1.21 lakh crore GSDP for 2024-25 at current prices clocking a healthy projected growth rate of 13.87% to 174-odd million USD foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow since 2019 and the signs of revival of iron ore mining through auctions of eleven blocks and initial operations in two of these blocks, Sreedharan projected Goa to be in the pinkest of health, economically.
On the social front, Sreedharan said, the government has ensured benefits to thousands of Goans via 100 per cent 'direct benefit transfers' (DBT) directly into beneficiary bank accounts under 166 schemes, 61 of which were Centrally-sponsored and the balance 105 bankrolled by the State. In the current fiscal, the government has transferred Rs 275.09 crore directly into beneficiary accounts until December 2024.
Sreedharan also dealt with the law-and-order scenario in the State for which the government has taken the stick in recent months following a series of incidents including murders, rapes, road accidents and scams, but he cited statistics to cherry pick the performance of the men in uniform who he said had achieved a crime detection rate of 88.38 per cent.
He said policing had ensured almost 4.91 lakh cases of traffic violations were booked and up to Rs 29.28 crore added to the State's kitty in fines during the current fiscal up to November.
One of the biggest stories which earned the State government loads of criticism and bad publicity -- the jobs for cash scam -- also found mention, albeit a glossary one from the Governor.
He said, under this government 43 persons were arrested in the cash for govt job scam and three cases were chargesheeted besides seizure of assets including vehicles, gold ornaments and bank accounts by the police.
"The Goa Staff Selection Commission has been established to ensure transparent and merit based recruitment henceforth," Sreedharan said.
The Governor also mentioned that the auction of 11 mineral blocks and commencement of operations in two of these blocks signals the revival of the crucial to Goa iron ore mining sector.
Operations in two to three other auctioned blocks are expected to begin in the next quarter, he said and added that the auctioning of eighteen low-grade mine dumps will also give the sector a fillip.
Tourism, another crucial economic sector in Goa, the Governor said had registered a 21% growth in footfalls in 2024 as compared to 2023. He also highlighted the government's efforts to improve and enhance the State's digital footprint, particularly in touristically important regions through the rollout of
Free Public WiFi Hotspots at 75 locations and the launch of 'Let’s Goa' portal.
Across his 80-minute speech, Sreedharan touched on an achievement or two of the government under every department be it agriculture, health, water resources, PWD for road connectivity among others.
What, however, the Governor left out from articulating in the address was clarity in the government's stance on the vexed Mhadei water dispute with Karnataka, the state of the government's finances and the state of Goa's long-term fiscal health and public debt scenario often picked to slam the government by critics.
