IIT project will come up at Sanguem only: Goa minister

Minister for Archives and Archaeology, Subhash Phal Dessai, said instead of protesting, people should submit their property papers and settle, if they have encroached upon government land.

Even as the people against the IIT project in Sanguem have warned to intensify their agitation, Goa minister Subhash Phal Dessai said that it will come into reality at the same place. 

Though the people against the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) project in Sanguem have warned to intensify their stir, Minister for Archives and Archaeology, Subhash Phal Dessai, on Thursday said the project will come up at the same place.  “The IIT-Goa project will come to reality at Sanguem. Instead of protesting, people should submit their property papers and settle, if they have encroached (into government areas),” Phal Desai said. 

‘IIT Goa may create 2,000 job opportunities’ 

He had recently 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. 

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. 

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