The Goa Investment Promotion and Facilitation Board’s (IPB) approval for the Deltin group’s controversial integrated resort project at Dhargalim in Pernem taluka will only be granted after it secures clearance from the Command Area Development Authority (CADA), Chief Minister Pramod Sawant informed the Goa Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.
Replying to a starred question jointly tabled by Leader of the Opposition Yuri Alemao and MLAs Adv Carlos Alvares Ferreira and Altone D’Costa, Sawant told the House, “The Deltin group’s project is currently sub judice in the High Court of Bombay at Goa. The IPA has given approval to the project subject to CADA Board’s approval.”
Water Resources Minister Subhash Shirodkar added that a meeting of the CADA board would be convened after the conclusion of the ongoing Assembly session and before August 15.
He said the board would discuss several pending proposals, including Deltin group’s application concerning 3.38 lakh square metres of land.
The government further informed the House that the land in question was purchased from local farmers by the Deltin group, and that the IPB had declared the site — allegedly located in the command area of the Tillari Irrigation Project — as an Investment Promotion Area in 2021. However, the Water Resources Department (WRD) clarified that no government-acquired land had been allotted to the Deltin Group at Dhargalim.
Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao alleged that the land was illegally converted from agricultural/CADA land to commercial or hospitality use, calling it a ‘CADA land scam’, and demanded a formal inquiry into what he described as “political-bureaucratic collusion to benefit a casino-linked private entity.”