PANAJI
The Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday finally announced that his government has decided to relocate the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campus project out of the current site at Guleli in Sattari citing public sentiments.
The government is yet to zero in on a new site for the IIT campus, Sawant said after a meeting with Health Minister and local elected representatives from the region at his official Altinho bungalow.
He said the decision to move the project out from Sattari was taken to "respect the public sentiments of the locals".
Locals at Shel-Melauli have been agitating for months against the project and the protests recently were marred by violence when a team of government land surveyors were pelted with stones.
Sawant rejected suggestions that there were vested interests in locating the project in Sattari other than developing the backward taluka.
At the Chief Minister's official bungalow on Friday morning, panchas and recently elected ZP members of the area participated in the meeting with Sawant and the home minister after which the decision was taken.
"This government listens to the voice of the people. Therefore, our government has decided to shift the project from Sattari to another location," Sawant said emerging out of the meeting.
The project was planned from the perspective of development, but the state government could not convince locals, he said.
This is the third time that the State government has scrapped its decision to allocate a specific site for the IIT Goa campus, which has been sharing a campus temporarily with the Goa Engineering College in Farmagudi.
Earlier, the government had cancelled plans to locate it in Canacona inb2016-17 and at Sanguem in 2019.
Initially, the Sawant-led government had taken an adamant posture post the violence by protesters at Melauli last week.
Criminal cases under non-bailable sections including 'attempt to murder' were booked against several dozens of protesters and the government insisted it would proceed with the project.
"There are requests to withdraw the cases filed against protestors. There is a process which needs to be followed. We are reviewing the cases," Sawant said.
However, two days ago Health Minister was the first to change his stand when village after village in Sattari where he holds immense political clout began rising in support of the Melauli villagers.
But, a day later, Power Minister Nilesh Cabral said he would welcome the IIT project in his Curchorem constituency.
Cabral said, he had identified nine-lakh square meters of land in his constituency, saying that people in Curchorem would "welcome IIT".
