IIT Goa may create 2,000 job opportunities: Minister

Subhash Phal Dessai, Minister for Archives and Archaeology, Goa, said the project will help develop Sanguem area with due care to sustainable environment.  

Subhash Phal Dessai, Minister for Archives and Archaeology, Goa, said the prolonged Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) project in Sanguem may create 2,000 employment opportunities which would benefit the local youth. 

He advocated the need for the proposed educational project to give a boost to his constituency. “The project will help to develop this area with due care to sustainable environment. There is a possibility of the creation of 2,000 employment opportunities which would benefit local youth,” he said. 

IIT Goa functioning from Goa Engineering College 

Ever since an IIT was allotted to Goa by the Centre in 2014, the institute started functioning at a temporary campus housed in Goa Engineering College (GEC) in Ponda. The IIT Goa campus proposed at Sanguem in South Goa is facing opposition from the locals, and recently people also staged protests in Panaji, around 60 km from the proposed site. South Goa District Collector Jyoti Kumarihad also issued orders imposing Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. Under the order, a gathering of five or more people within 200 metres from the demarcated site in Cotarli village panchayat with the intention to disrupt or delay the process of survey and demarcation of the proposed IIT site was prohibited. 

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had recently said the foundation stone for setting up of IIT Goa project will be laid within the next six months. "Just 8 to 10 people were protesting against the IIT in the capital city. Media should understand what should be highlighted. Doesn't the media want development," Sawant asked, while attending a programme in Sanguem. He said such opposition for developmental works will not be tolerated.  

"This government is for the people. We all should get united and work for the IIT. Within the next six months, we can lay the foundation stone," Sawant said, adding that only locals from the area will get opportunities in non-teaching jobs. 

Read more: 

• JNTUH relaxes promotion rules for BTech/BPharm courses 
• National Intellectual Property award to IIT Madras 
• Engg admission deadline extended till November 30 in Karnataka