Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar on Wednesday disclosed on the Floor of the House that non-submission of utilization certificate (UC) for various projects sanctioned by the Centre by the previous Congress government, has deprived the State of Central funds for tourism projects for the last three years.
Parulekar also charged the previous government of diverting central funds awarded for tourism projects for other developmental works, forcing the BJP-led government to clear all the pending dues.
“It is known fact that the central funds released during the previous government tenure were utilized for other purposes. The failure to submit the UC deprived State of central funds for tourism for last three years,” the minister told the Legislative Assembly.
“However, State had ATM machine in form of Manohar Parrikar and now ATM machine in form of Laxmikant Parsekar. Hence the tourism projects never faced financial crunch at the state level,” he commented.
The issue was raised by BJP MLA Nilesh Cabral, who is also chairman of the Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC), who sought to know whether State has received any central funds for tourism projects in the last three years.
“State has not received any central funds but was forced to complete the works undertaken by previous government shelling out money. Unless UC is submitted there is no way we can ask the Centre to give money,” the minister clarified.
The minister informed the House that he will be leaving for Delhi on Friday to put up the demand for central allocation. “This is a serious issue and this needs to be tackled,” he said.
