Goa's plans for IT park skid on forest floor

The Congress-led Pratapsinh Rane government in Goa received a major blow to its plans for the information technology (IT) Park at Socorro plateau after the Panaji bench of Bombay High Court restrained it from proceeding with any development on the survey numbers concerned until disposal of the petition.

In a writ filed by the Goa Foundation, an NGO, it objected to the IT Park on the grounds that vegetation and density of vegetation on the plots earmarked for the project is higher than those on plots identified in the area by two expert committees - Sawant and Karapurkar respectively.

The state government had promised the High Court that 'no work' would be carried at the Socorro IT Park following a writ petition filed by the Goa Foundation alleging that it would be unlawful to locate the park at the site as it is 'within or next' to private forests identified and marked for protection by the Supreme Court order.

The admission was granted in view of report submitted by the state forest department, which stated that the proposed IT park is divided into two blocks spread over 29 hectares. Official sources told Business Standard that approximately 50 per cent of the area of block-A on its western side meets the criteria for forests set by the Sawant Committee and Karapurkar Committee.

The remaining area of the block-A towards east is mostly open and does not meet the criteria for forest. While the block-B has 80 per cent of area meeting the criteria of forest.

Goa's IT Minister Dayanand Narvekar took the initiative of setting up of the IT Park on the verdant plateau touching 4-5 villages including Ucassaim, Pomburpa, Socorro and Salvador-do-Mundo.

The Congress-led government then began the work in a haste through the Goa Info-Tech Corporation instead of the IT Department. Incidentally, Narvekar the IT Minister, is also the chairman of Info-Tech Corporation.

There was opposition simmering from the start on the grounds that the IT units would place immense pressure on water, power, roads, besides changing the demographic profile of the villages.

The migrants settled in the constituency through 20-point programme (which allegedly came at the behest of Narvekar when he was the MLA of the constituency in the past) are posing a problem in the respective areas.

But undeterred by the opposition, Narvekar has shown the determination to go ahead with the project and his Info-Tech Corporation ironically, has taken up widening of roads, building community hall, parks, landscaped gardens and other works.

According to sources, the Info-Tech Corporation has not even done the elementary environment impact assessment which is mandatory for such projects.

The land was selected without adequate and careful examination of the nature of the land. The land acquisition process commenced without obtaining approval of the Centre, which is mandatory under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.

Over 12.4 lakh sq mt of prime forest land is being cleared on a war footing for the proposed IT habitat on the Socorro and Salvador do Mundo plateau. Narvekar, who is also a vice-president of the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI), said that the IT Park at Socorro would create employment for at least 25,000 in Goa.