Tuem, Chimbel IT projects should be revived immediately: Parsekar

NT NETWORK

 

PANAJI

Lamenting that the government has put both the proposed information technology (IT) projects namely Tuem-based Electronic City/ Electronics Manufacturing Cluster and Chimbel-based IT Habitat in the cold storage, the former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar, on Thursday, said that both these projects should be immediately revived, now that the state Cabinet has cleared the Goa IT Policy, which will be unveiled on July 14.

Parsekar, who during his tenure as the state chief minister had fervently followed both these projects, had envisaged that the Tuem-based project would generate over 25,000 jobs and further help to absorb even less educated youth, as the units coming up in the Electronic City would be assembling hardware.

He had also stated that the target of the Bharatiya Janata Party government was to create 50,000 jobs in five years and facilitate Rs 25,000 crore worth new investments by 2020, for which the two IT projects would be very much helpful.

The former chief minister stated that lot of money has been spent on both these projects. “My government procured 5.97 lakh sq mts of land for the Electronic City, changed its zoning, constructed access road for the project, allotted 18,000 sq mts of land to the electricity department to set up a power station and also allotted land for setting up 10 MLD capacity water treatment plant, as also we transferred a land in Chimbel, which was in possession of the Directorate of Health Services to the IT Department for IT Habitat project,” he informed.

Speaking to ‘The Navhind Times,’ Parsekar said that when he attended his first meeting convened by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as a member of the state chief ministers’ group, the Prime Minister had prevailed upon the attending chief ministers to take initiative towards starting Electronic City kind of projects in their respective states.

“The Prime Minister had mentioned that following fuels, electronic products were the next things on which our country spent maximum money from our foreign exchange resources, and therefore he wanted every state in India to take up such projects, so that we could produce the electronic products here itself,” Parsekar noted, stating that the Prime Minister also stressed on creation of jobs through such environment-friendly projects.

 

“In fact, the Prime Minister said that projects like Electronic City have the capacity and capability of recovering all the foreign exchange spent on fuels,” he mentioned.

“I am proud to make a mention that I was the first chief minister to submit the Electronic City proposal to the Centre, and acquire the land for the same, even though I had to take some shortcuts,” the former chief minister admitted, adding that the centre had sanctioned an amount of around Rs 60 crores for the same, during his tenure.

“This first instalment of the money must be now in the possession of the state government,” Parsekar stated, pointing out, “I am not boasting, but the speed with which I had followed up this project, could not be seen after the new government came to power in 2017.”

He also quipped that if the government, after taking over the administration, requires one-and-a-half year to bring out the Goa IT Policy, then one can very well imagine how long it will take for completion of these IT projects.

On a parting note, Parsekar said that the government had also received investment offers from many agencies, which assured creation of large number of jobs at the Electronic City.