Panaji: Alleging that the Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) has suffered a loss of over Rs 10 crore, United Goans Foundation (UGF), an NGO, has called for a probe into all the industrial plots allotted in the last few years. GIDC allotted a utility plot, reserved for common utility infrastructure, to a private steel fabrication and lathe machining unit, said UGF.UGF has written to chief secretary V Candavelou questioning the legality of the allotment, and has said that the 4,128sqm plot was allotted at Rs 2,810 per sqm, despite GIDC’s own records demonstrating that industrial land in Verna has fetched prices of up to Rs 29,300 per sqm through e-auction. According to the complaint, the public exchequer lost Rs 10.9 crore.“If a utility plot can be converted into a private industrial plot and allotted at barely one-tenth of its demonstrated market value, the public is entitled to know whether this is an isolated case or merely the visible tip of a much larger land allotment scandal,” said UGF’s Aashish Kaamat.Just two days earlier, Kaamat had written to chief minister Pramod Sawant, the vigilance department, and the Anti-Corruption Bureau, calling for a probe in the allotment of utility plot U02-X at Verna Industrial Estate.The complaint stated that GIDC managing director P Polumatla Abhishek, who brought in the new GIDC Regulations in 2023, authorised the allotment of the utility plot contrary to those very regulations. This, said Kaamat, warranted departmental and criminal scrutiny.UGF has urged govt to immediately cancel the allotment, preserve all records and initiate departmental proceedings against the officials responsible.
