PANAJI: The report presented to the governing council of the Entertainment Society of Goa on August 23, 2008 by a sub-committee constituted to decide on the adaptive reuse of the old Goa Medical College building

during the 37th meeting of the council states that “the said heritage building should remain in the public domain,” and also suggests that “appropriate legal advice needs to be obtained to understand the extent of involvement of private sector in the daily upkeep and maintenance of the building.”
The report of the sub-committee headed by Mr Vishnu Wagh and having Dr Rufino Monteiro, a representative of the Goan medical fraternity as well as Mr Dean D’Cruz, noted architect and a representative of the Goa Heritage Action Group further recommends creation of a medical museum on the ground floor of the building, taking into consideration the fact that the old GMC building housed the first medical school in Asia.
And finally the report recommends, “the building should not be handed over to M/s Fargo Estate Ltd and the Letter of Intent issued to the company by the ESG (for constructing a shopping mall cum art and heritage destination) should be withdrawn with immediate effect.”
The same company, an estate developer establishment, on April 22, 2010 gave a presentation to another 5-member committee headed by the Chief Secretary, Mr Sanjay Srivastava, this time around for converting the heritage building into a film school.
It may further be recalled that a nationwide tender was floated by the ESG inviting leading developers for developing the old GMC building as destination centre as well for its adaptive reuse, following the advice by the consultant, A F Ferguson and Company, Mumbai. M/s Fargo Estate Ltd, which was one of the applicants for the bid was awarded the tender for a lease rental of Rs 5.1 crore per annum and which could be increased by 10 per cent every 3 years. The company was asked to hire a conservation architect to renovate the building premises, with no structural changes of any kind allowed.
Incidentally, after a hue and cry was made over this project by various NGOs, Goan medical fraternity and heritage groups, the 25th meeting of the governing council of the ESG decided to defer the final decision of handing over the building to the company, and constituted a sub-committee under the chairmanship of Vishnu Wagh.
The sub-committee immediately invited public opinion on the adaptive reuse of the old GMC building and  then prepared its report.
The governing body, upon receiving this report decided to appoint a panel under the then chief secretary, Mr J P Singh and authorised the chairman of the ESG to appoint other members on this panel. This panel was expected to study the recommendations of the sub-committee report, view them in proper light and use them for long-term plans of the ESG. Interestingly, till date, it is not known whether this panel was constituted or whether any related notification had been issued     
Meanwhile, M/s Fargo Estate Ltd was called to give a presentation before the governing body of the ESG, during its 48th meeting held on February 3, 2010, as regards setting up a film school in the old GMC building. After this presentation, a five member sub-committee headed by the Chief Secretary, Mr Sanjay Srivastava was constituted so as to elaborately study this presentation and come out with recommendations as regards the film school project.
It is also learnt that the noted filmmaker, Rahul Rawail who made films like ‘Betaab’, ‘Arjun’ and ‘Buddha Mar Gaya’ is involved in the film school project.