MARGAO
Buoyed by the success of the Cujira School Complex, Bambolim, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant in his budget speech on Friday has announced that the government will start work on setting up a similar project “Mathagram Vidya Sankul” at Davorlim from the current year.
While presenting the budget estimates for the financial year 2026-27, the Chief Minister said the government would start work on the proposed education hub at Davorlim, land for which was acquired by the government over a decade and half ago.
The Chief Minister’s announcement assumes significance land admeasuring 1.15 lakh square metres was acquired by the Congress government headed by then Chief Minister Digambar Kamat during his five year stint from 2007-12.
While the land was initially acquired by the South Goa district Collector for multi-utility government projects, the government later decided to set up an education hub on the acquired land at Davorlim to decongest the commercial capital by shifting the city schools to the outskirts.
The proposal, however, failed to take off for various reasons, even though managements of Margao-based schools have been pressing hard with the government to take urgent steps to shift the city schools to the acquired land at Davorlim.
Former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had made a concerted moved to shift the city schools to Davorlim when he returned to power in 2017, but the project could not materialise after Davorlim villagers insisted that the government earmark portion of the acquired land to meet the village infrastructural requirements, including garbage management, playground for the villagers, besides community hall and allocation of the acquired land to build a Chapel on the sloppy land.
The education department has since demarcated the acquired land in order to secure the same from encroachments.
