TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The Centre is favourably inclined towards granting the State a Rs 1,000 crore special package and also wants the government to fast track the construction of a convention centre. This emerged from a pre-budget meeting called by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of finance ministers. Goa was represented by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar.
Sources say Jaitley is likely to consider taking up the proposal in the upcoming budget. This is the amount sought from the Centre as a special package for Goa due to loss from mining revenue.
Jaitley also requested the Goa government to take forward the proposal on the convention centre which is a central project and was mentioned in the last budget. He requested the government to fast track the centre and specified that it should be of five star standards and have a minimum 10,000 seating capacity. It was felt that this would help boost tourism in Goa and the Centre has offered all help towards the building of the centre.
