Panaji: A crucial meeting of the Command Area Development (CAD) Board of the Goa Tillari irrigation project will be held on Wednesday, and the meeting is likely to decide on a proposal to denotify 3.1 hectares of command area land and a casino firm proposal.The CAD member secretary said that the meeting would involve “discussion of representation received for omission of areas from command area in response to a notification and inclusion of additional areas in response to the notification”.The meeting will decide on the omission of 31,533sqm land from the command area in Calangute, Parra, Assagao, Anjuna, Latambarcem, Revora, Sarvan, Torsem, Mayem, Dhargal, and Bicholim. The CAD board will also decide on the inclusion of 292 hectares in the command area. The board is also likely to consider new proposals for denotification from the command area in Bardez, Bicholim, and Pernem Talukas.TOI has earlier reported that over a year after the state cabinet decided to denotify 3.3 lakh sqm of command area of the Tillari irrigation project in Dhargalim for a casino firm, WRD minister Subhash Shirodkar said that govt would not denotify it.“We have received a proposal from Delta at Dhargalim. We have not denotified it and we will not denotify it. We have to reduce the speed of granting permissions to big projects. I will not say that we should completely ban big projects as we have to continue with development, but not at the cost of our people,” Shirodkar had said.The cabinet had decided to denotify the land contrary to the Goa state Amritkal agriculture policy, 2025.The proposed project comprises three hotels, a convention centre, a multiplex, a retail area, a water park, banquet facilities, and a children’s entertainment area, among others. State govt also waived off Rs 5.5 crore sought by the water resource department as notional.Last year, a proposal was moved by the Goa Investment Promotion and Facilitation Board (Goa IPB) at the cabinet for the denotification of the area to pave the way for Delta Corporation to set up an “integrated resort development project”.The Tillari irrigation project is an interstate project taken up at a cost of Rs 1,465 crore to irrigate a command area of 14,521ha in Goa. The dam is located in Maharashtra, and the canals are constructed in Maharashtra and Goa. Water from the dam is conveyed for irrigation and drinking purposes through two canals, namely the left bank main canal (LBMC) and the right bank main canal (RBMC).
