Freezing influx, brain drain necessary to develop Goa: CM

Panaji -  Goa needs to freeze migration into the state and reverse the brain drain from the state to retain its unique identity as well as develop a healthy employment culture, according to (microsmall and medium enterprises) MSME entrepreneurs and the state's top political executive.

Both industry and Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar are now coming together to form a program which will calibrate the state's education sector's output with the requirements of the MSME industries in Goa, which provide ancillary support to major industrial units in the state.

"I am very clear about it. We need to freeze the incoming population while looking at industrial expansion. I am happy when one person from another state comes for a job to Goa, but he comes with two other unemployed relatives and that adds to the unemployment number in Goa," Parrikar told a trade body function.

The chief minister advised the MSME entrepreneurs that he was also against any mega corporate project which offers thousands of jobs opportunities, which he fears will only lead to influx of educated migrants from neighbouring states.

Citing the example of the IT industry, Parrikar said: "I can only have a maximum of 10,000 potentials in the IT sector in Goa. With that number, I cannot have an industry which offers 50,000 jobs over a period of time".

In-migration is a contentious issue in Goa, with citizens' groups fearing that rampant influx of non-ethnic Goans is threatening the unique identity of the state. Members of both ruling political parties, namely the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as the Congress have sporadically demanded that Goa be accorded special status vis a vis land rights, so that the heavy in-migration of workforce, across both unskilled as well as skilled sectors,is arrested.

According to the spokesperson for the MSME industry in Goa Shekhar Sardessai, the state government needed to dove-tail the human resource output from the state's education sector to cater to Goa's industrial requirements.

"Until you create employment, you will see a brain drain happening. There is a mismatch between output and opportunity here. There is a need to dove-tail the education and industrial policies of Goa," Sardessai said, adding that Goa should not rely on heavy polluting industries but,instead focus on developing the MSME sector.

Parrikar said that the need was for the industry and the government to work together and work out a mechanism like a council, with representatives from both sides, which would create the right environment and support for creating the right quality and quantity of job opportunities.

"Let us work together. You give me employment, I will give you all the support you want," Parrikar told the MSME entrepreneurs.