Curation Team
PANAJI: Chief minister Pramod Sawant on Friday said that Goa aims to be the first state to prepare and submit an eco-sensitive plan to the Centre. “Goa will be the first state to submit an eco-sensitive zone plan to the Centre. We are working on sustainable development; there is no haphazard management,” said Sawant at the regional rural workshop for the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (Gramin).
Sawant said that Goa govt is formulating schemes so that even people from the OBC and economically weaker sections can get proper houses in Goa. “Under the PMAY, we have just 250 beneficiaries. Of those more than 240 houses were already built. But there is a need to conduct a fresh survey under this scheme,” said Sawant.
He said that some of the prospective beneficiaries migrated to other states, while there are some people who did not qualify for the scheme even though they required houses. “There are some people who are living in a joint family, and they cannot benefit from these schemes. We need to expand this scheme, extend the benefits, but these people must settle in the villages and not in the towns,” said Sawant.
The chief minister said that people must be encouraged to stay in the villages. “If people migrate from villages to towns, the ecosystem will be disturbed. For this ecosystem not to get disturbed, people must be encouraged to stay in the villages. I am sure the Centre will think about this too. It is necessary that people get houses in their own villages,” he said.
Sawant said that Goa is the first state to ensure that all central schemes reach every citizen in the state. “We succeeded in taking all the schemes to at least 90% of the people. There may be a few people who were not able to benefit from the schemes,” he said.
