Porvorim: Tourism minister Rohan Khaunte on Tuesday said that state govt started the process to identify a new site for the construction of Unity Mall. He further said that the opposition to the Unity Mall was a mere political issue.Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas said the project had hidden illegalities and that there was a need for an inquiry into the construction licence issued for Unity Mall by the block development office and the directorate of panchayat.Venzy asked the tourism minister to place before the House the cabinet decision, govt order, or file authorising the shifting of Unity Mall.“When a new area is finalised for the mall and it is placed before the cabinet, then all the issues raised by Venzy will be taken care of,” said Khaunte, adding, “Administratively, we took a decision and started work on identifying new sites. What else do you want? Now you want to do politics again?”“When the Unity Mall goes to a new place, it will be an administrative decision, and the land identified will be a cabinet decision,” the tourism minister said.The decision to scrap the Unity Mall project at Chimbel was taken after considering the emotions and sentiments of the local community, Khaunte said.He added that a total of Rs 7.1 crore was disbursed towards the Unity Mall project and a claim of Rs 11.6 lakh was submitted by the consultant, which is currently under review and is not yet released.
