Goa trade body demands Rs.1,000 crore grant for state

Panaji, March 24 (IANS) With an eye to tourism, Goa's apex trade body has demanded a special grant of Rs.1,000 crore from union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his budget for the next fiscal to develop a sewage and garbage treatment plant in the state.

"The Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has demanded a special grant of Rs.1,000 crore to Goa for establishing a coastal sewage and garbage treatment plant and also for creating an international level Convention Centre," GCCI president Manguirish Pai Raikar said after meeting Mukherjee in New Delhi.

Raikar also said that Goa needed to create top notch infrastructure facilities to compete with the top tourism destinations of the world and that a sewage and garbage treatment plant in Goa was essential to combat untreated garbage -- one of the biggest hurdles to the tourism industry in Goa.

The demand from the GCCI comes even as tourism organisations have complained of non- biodegradable garbage strewn around places of tourist interest, in absence of a garbage management system.

Raikar said the Goa trade body was forced to reiterate the demand after requests made through a pre-budget memorandum submitted by the GCCI to Mukherjee in December last year were not paid heed to during the budget presentation earlier this month.