PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday dropped a major hint at the possibility of relocating the IIT-Goa project to the state’s newest taluka, Dharbandora.
Speaking at a function in the South Goa taluka, Sawant also said that the Goa government had identified the relatively backward taluka of Dharbandora, for government projects, which would be housed on government property in the taluka.
“We are trying to create government projects on government land in the Dharbandora taluka. People of Dharbandora should welcome the projects. You will not realise its importance now, but these projects will aid your children’s future and help the progress of the region,” Sawant said.
“We have not decided which projects will be started here, but I can say for sure that the government is trying hard to get educational institutes to Dharbandora. Whether it is IIT or a forensic institute or the National School of Law. One of the three projects will be allotted to Dharbandora for its development,” Sawant said.
The IIT-Goa campus project has been hanging fire for the last several years, due to the inability of the Goa government to find a suitable site for the campus.
Goa was allotted an IIT by the central government in 2014 and the elite institute has been functioning since from a temporary campus shared by the Goa Engineering College and the National Institute of Technology in Farmagudi village, in South Goa.
Last year, the BJP-led coalition government had zeroed down on Melaulim in North Goa as the site for the campus after two other potential locations in Sanguem and Canacona were shot down following popular protests by local residents, who alleged that a land scam orchestrated by ruling politicians in the identification of the campus location.
In January, this year, the Goa government was forced to scrap the IIT-campus at Melaulim, after protests by local villagers turned violent. Villagers of Melaulim and adjoining villages claimed that land acquisition processes were conducted in haste while identifying the IIT-campus site in Melaulim, which they said would render several local residents homeless and deprived of their ancestral land.
Sawant also assured that the state government’s mining corporation was looking to start mining activity in the state in the next three months.
“Many feel that we have started the mining corporation just for show. The mining corporation will work towards starting mining activities in the next three months,” Sawant said.
