PANAJI
With the controversy over locating the permanent campus of IIT-Goa in Sanguem playing out since July, the State government is yet to take a formal decision in the cabinet to seal the issue even as Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and his cabinet colleague Subhash Phaldessai who is the local MLA, insisting it will be the site.
Sawant admits a "formal decision" has not yet been taken, which is why he is yet to make any official announcement but insists it will be the site, and the formalities, including an agreement between the government and IIT-Goa, will be signed after the 'site selection team' of the union ministry visits and approves it.
"The land is government land. We don't have to buy it from anyone. I don't need to make statements about IIT at Sanguem all the time," Sawant has said even as he went on to list the positive changes that will accrue to the area with an estimated 5,000 students living on the campus.
While the chief minister declined to go into the technicalities, including the total area which will be allotted to IIT-Goa for their campus in Sanguem, sources in the administration familiar with the matter said an already demarcated 7.5 lakh square metres is all clear for the handover.
Claims apart, the issue is unlikely to see closure very soon, statements of the Chief Minister and Phaldessai notwithstanding.
In the case of Melaulim, which the government eventually abandoned in January 2021 after six-month-long agitation by locals, the cabinet had passed the decision, the MoU was signed with IIT-Goa and the document of ownership and possession (sanad) was also issued in favour of the institute.
If the Melaulim experience is anything to go by, there's no certainty, the story may not repeat even if there is no immediate risk of an electoral fallout for the ruling government in the case of Sanguem, up until the Lok Sabha polls due in 2024.
