PANJIM, JAN 19
Goa government will have to modify its employment policy to give employment to Tillari dam affected people, Water Resources Minister Filipe Neri Rodrigues said.
Minister said that Goa is ready to honour the commitment given during
inception of Tillari Irrigation Development Project but will have to study the profiles of all those affected by the project before assuring them the government employment.
“Before taking any decision the issue will be raised before chief minister. The government will have to modify the existing policy,” Rodrigues said adding that the State is ready to give jobs to People Affected by Project (PAP) provided the candidates fit in the required criteria.
Maharashtra Water Resources Minister Sunil Tatkare who met Rodrigues on Monday in Panjim urged Goa Government to provide employment to fulfill its 20-year-old long promise to provide employment to around 630 people from Maharashtra affected with the inter-state Tillari Irrigation Project.
Tatkare during his press briefing on Monday had clarified that according to the agreement signed between both the States in 1990 had discussed that Goa will have 73 percent water from the dam project which is at the brink of completion.
“Goa was supposed to have 73 percent cost sharing and liability like providing employment to the PAP as per 1976 Rehabilitation Act of Maharashtra,” he had said claming that Maharashtra Government has already provided jobs to 204 PAPs.
Agreeing to the fact, Rodrigues said that there is a clause which speaks of employment to PAPs but we need to see what kind of employment could be provided to them.
“We just cannot rehabilitate them….will have to study the entire concept,” he said adding that since Goa never took any big rehabilitation project, the state does not have a policy to pay one-time settlement for PAPs.
Around 20 years back when the project was conceived, 11 villages with 1,236 families and 5,476 populations were affected of which 869 families were certified to be PAP.
