PANAJI
Bowing to public pressure, the Goa government on Sunday announced its decision to scrap the proposed permanent site for the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campus at Codar village. Apparently, this is a sixth identified site that the government was forced to drop following strong opposition from local residents.
The national premier institute -- IIT Goa -- is struggling to secure land for its permanent campus since its establishment in July 2016. In its 9th year of functioning, the institute continues to operate from a temporary facility at the Goa Engineering College (GEC), Farmagudi.
On Sunday, WRD Minister and Shiroda MLA Subhash Shirodkar announced the decision to cancel the proposed project in Codar village. He said that the decision was taken after discussing the concerns of the Codar villagers with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.
“CM told me that we don’t want to force the project on the people, if they are opposed to it…if they don’t want it,” Shirodkar said while proposing that Farmagudi could be made the permanent campus for the institute by acquiring additional land in the area.
“Now, IIT will continue functioning at Farmagudi in Ponda, where it is currently based, though with inconvenience,” he said, citing that there was no scope for expansion at the current location and that the institute is failing to expand as far as research is considered.
He also raised concern that consistent failure and opposition to the project might foresee IIT moving out of Goa. “And this is not a healthy sign,” he asserted.
Speaking in the presence of Codar Comunidade president Prashant Gaonkar and others, the Minister alleged that some “vested interests” were instigating people to oppose developmental initiatives, and asserted that the IIT campus at Codar would not have affected the livelihood or land of farmers. He pointed out that such opposition to projects is detrimental to the State’s development.
As per the notice issued by the Central Comunidade on August 19, the government announced plans to acquire about 14.5 lakh sq. mts of comunidade land for the project and had granted 30-days to the people to raise their objections.
Shirodkar said the IIT campus at Codar, which falls in his assembly constituency, would have brought development to the area.
“Giving land to IIT would have been truly meaningful since it is related to education and would have benefited our Goan students in the long run. Also, it would have given international recognition to Codar village, apart from generating direct and indirect employment to the locals of this small village,” he said, adding the locals have lost the opportunity.
The Minister said that the whole idea behind taking IIT to Codar was that a huge 15 lakh sq mts of comunidade land was available. The comunidade has already given around 5 lakh sq mts to the locals, who were cultivating the land, by issuing sanads.
“Also, Ponda taluka is known as an educational hub with three engineering colleges, nursing, etc,” he said.
Codar villagers, primarily from the tribal community, have been opposing the project since its announcement, arguing that their village is agriculturally rich and that many locals depend on farming for their livelihood.
Earlier attempts to establish the IIT campus at Loliem-Canacona, Melauli-Sattari, and Cotarli-Sanguem were abandoned after public opposition, while Rivona-Sanguem and Dharbandora sites were shelved over land acquisition hurdles.
The prolonged land issue for permanent campus has led to the engineering institute missing out on crucial research and infrastructure grants from the Centre. The institute, in fact even missed out the additional infrastructure grants from the Union Ministry of Education, which was announced for all IITs set up after 2014.
