If not for Central funding, Goa infra wouldn't have taken off: Parrikar

CENTRAL INVESTMENTS
IN GOA: Rs 25,000 CRORE
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STATE COULD HAVE JUST
CONTRIBUTED: Rs 1500 CR
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GOA DIDN'T HAVE FUNDS
FOR NEW ZUARI BRIDGE
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Today what is undertaken in health, water supply and environment, roads, etc in all the centre’s projects are around worth Rs 25,000 crore
- Manohar Parrikar
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PANAJI: The infrastructure development that is currently being undertaken in Goa is all thanks to the benevolence of the central government, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said pointing out that the State government would in no way have the capacity to invest amounts which are now likely to touch Rs 25,000 crore. Rs 60 crore from Centre
Speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony for the Rs 350-crore super speciality block at Bambolim’s Goa Medical College, Parrikar said that the state on its own only has the capacity to spend around Rs 1,500 crore.
With one eye on the 2019 general Lok Sabha elections, Parrikar was keen to stress how crucial the central government’s spending to the infrastructure being developed in the state.
Goa, on its own, would take 25 years to generate the money that the centre is spending over five years in the state, Parrikar said while rattling out figures.
“Goa’s tax, the tax we give (collect) is around Rs 6,000 crore. Non tax (revenue) and tax both together are around Rs 6,000 crore. From the centre, after this (BJP) government came to power, (the contribution) doubled, it became triple. This year approximately Rs 3,700 crore will come from the centre, which means that our collection (of) around Rs 6,300 and centre’s contribution of Rs 3700 will work out to Rs10,000 crore in our portfolio,” Parrikar explained.
“From this Rs10,000 crore (we have to spend) on roads, water and health amenities so that we are capable of (infrastructure investment of) around Rs1,500 - Rs 2,000 crore per year.
“Today what is undertaken in health, water supply and environment, roads, etc in all the centre’s projects are around worth Rs 25,000 crore,” Parrikar said adding that, “I’m specifying this because you have to be also acknowledging the fact that where the state could have just contributed Rs1,500 crore for development, the centre is already contributing 40% in our (annual) budget and on top of it for the next five years we have got around Rs 25,000 crore from the central government. To do this we would need to take 11-15 years if we put all our budget together and if we were to put our half budget it would take 25 years,” Parrikar said adding that the only reason the Zuari bridge took so long to get going despite it being known back in 1996 that it was weak was because the state on its own did not have the financial capacity to build a new one,” Parrikar said.
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for cleaning River Sal
PANAJI: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar informed that the central government has sanctioned rs 60-crore for cleaning Sal river.
The Chief Minister said he received the letter yesterday from Union Minister of Environment Harsh Vardhan. “I received the letter just yesterday (Monday) saying that we have received the letter sanctioning Rs 60.31 crore . They have generously given us the funding and we have to be acknowledging this fact. Many people don’t understand the importance of this. We should know that only because there is a supporting government in the centre we could have done this else we would not have had the ability to do this,” Parrikar said.