PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant chose this year’s convocation ceremony of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Goa on Sunday to repeat his assurance of resolving the issues of identifying and providing a permanent site for the esteemed institution.
“A spacious permanent site for the IIT campus in Goa will be provided soon,” Sawant said while speaking at the convocation of the institution which this year will complete a decade of functioning here from a campus it shares with the Goa Engineering College at Farmagudi, Ponda.
This was the sixth convocation ceremony of IIT-Goa and addressing the passing out graduates, Sawant urged them to consider contributing to making Goa a developed State while retaining memories of the State wherever they go in their professional journey.
IIT Director S K Dhiren Sikatty, Chairman of the Board of Directors Adil Siraj Zainulbhai and Senate members attended the ceremony where 174 students were conferred their BSc Tech and M Tech degrees, including some Doctor of Philosophy degrees.
Memories of student days are pleasant and unforgettable. We still celebrate get-togethers at the college where I studied in Kolhapur. Students who have graduated from IIT in Goa should contribute something for Goa as well,” Sawant said in his address.
Sawant also recalled in his speech that former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar was an IIT alumni.
“Apart from his contribution in the field of engineering, he (Parrikar) also made a great contribution for Goa and the country,” Sawant said, adding that engineers by overcoming odds must aim to create jobs rather than finding one for themselves.
Finalising a site for the permanent campus for IIT Goa which needs a minimum of 10 lakh square meters has dogged the Goa government since 2016-17 in the face of sustained public protests against all previous sites it had picked.
The Bhagwati plateau at Canacona where a film city is now being proposed was the first site zeroed in for the campus during the reign of Parrikar.
The plan was however abandoned after locals protested against the move in the run-up to the 2017 Assembly elections.
The second site picked but abandoned by the government was at Melauli-Sattari where again locals and farmers protested against their land being taken over. A third and fourth site were also similarly abandoned in Sanguem.
Since then, Sawant has assured of providing the site for the campus on multiple occasions but his government is yet to announce where the campus will be located.
