MARGAO
With attempts to acquire land to set up the campus in the recent past coming a cropper, the government has finally zeroed in on the village of Rivona in Sanguem taluka to set up the permanent campus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).
In fact, the government plans to set up the IIT campus on land admeasuring a whopping 10.51 lakh sq mts at Rivona.
A public notice to this effect was issued by South Goa District Collector, Asvin Chandru, IAS on Thursday stated that the land in question at Rivona is needed by the Director of Technical Education for setting up the permanent IIT campus.
The district collector has sought to acquire the land under the Procurement of Land under Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 for direct procurement of land to set up public purposes on priority basis.
A glance at the public notice reveals that the government has identified four tentative areas for procurement of the 10,51618 sq mts. Around 6,27,703 sq mts is sought to be acquired located in survey no 168/1 of Rivona village. Besides, 3,79,500 sq mts, 11,315 sq mts and 33,100 sq mts is sought to be acquired from Survey nos 169/1, 169/2 and 169/3 respectively of Rivona village.
This is perhaps the fourth attempt made by the Goa government to acquire/procure land for the permanent campus of the IIT in Goa, the second attempt in Sanguem taluka, with the previous three attempts coming a cropper.
That the government is toying with the idea of acquiring/procuring land for the permanent IIT campus in Goa at Sanguem became clear last week when Sanguem MLA and Social Welfare Minister Subhash Faldesai dropped clear hints that the proposed IIT campus will come up at Sanguem itself.
The government had initially proposed to acquire land at Loliem-Canacona for the project, but had to withdraw due to opposition from villagers.
It was then decided to set up the permanent campus at Sattari after the Cabinet in 2020 gave the nod to acquire 10 lakh sq mts for the project at Melauli. A sustained and spirited agitation by the villagers of Melauli left the Pramod Sawant government with no option than to beat a retreat and look out for alternate sites.
The government later zeroed in on Sanguem taluka to set up the project, but opposition from the locals coupled with the fact that the land in question was not found suitable for the project made the government to drop the proposal yet again.
