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Goa government to form panel to identify new land for IIT
CM Pramod Sawant said they do not want a rerun of villagers refusing to concede identified land for IIT-Goa
The Goa government will form a committee to identify alternative land to set up the IIT campus this time to ensure that the fiasco of villager protests over an identified land does not repeat itself, chief minister Pramod Sawant has said.
“We have not decided where to shift it yet. The government may form a four to five member committee consisting of educationists, IIT officials and others for verification. We do not want such a problem again,” Sawant told reporters on the sidelines of a function in Margao in South Goa.
“The IIT should have a base in Goa. The government is serious about it. The committee will examine location options and the government will take a final decision then,” he added.
Late last week, following sustained protests that only gathered in size with neighbouring villages pitching in to support the villagers of Melaulim who were protesting against the IIT for the past six months, Sawant relented and said IIT would be shifted elsewhere ‘respecting the views of the people.’
The decision capped more than six months of protests, largely by Malaulim villagers who had refused to concede land in their village and had set up a blockade at the entrance to the site refusing to allow government surveyors to demarcate the land.
There were violent clashes in early January between villagers and Goa Police, resulting in injuries on both sides.
In May last year, the Goa government had formally transferred around 10 lakh sq. mts land in Melaulim village in North Goa, for setting up of IIT. IIT Goa has been functioning from a temporary campus at the Goa Engineering College since 2014.
Two other sites previously identified by the state government, in Canacona and Sanguem sub districts, for setting up of a permanent campus for IIT were also scrapped in the face of protests from local residents.
