Team Herald
sanguem: The Union Education Ministry, on October 26, wrote to the Government of Goa asking it to “reconsider” alternate sites for the IIT in Darbandora near Ponda (current location of IIT Goa), Communidade land at Canacona or at Quittol or any other suitable land of about 300 acres.
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The document available with Herald, blows the cover off the repeated attempts by the Sanguem MLA Subhash Phal Desai to insist that the IIT “would not go anywhere” and remain in Sanguem.
Famers in Sanguem, who have all along maintained that the land in Sanguem will destroy their cultivable farms, have got muscle to their argument that the MLA and Minister was “hoodwinking them. If the MLA was aware of this letter (and there is no reason why he shouldn’t be), this points to a serious suspected case of deliberately misleading the locals on two grounds – a) The IIT would come up in the same area and b) the IIT would continue to be in Sanguem.
The Union Government has firmly closed the option, irrespective of what Minister Phal Dessai may say.
Regarding point b), the IIT could stay in Sanguem only if alienated land is identified and accepted by the Union government in that taluka. There is no guarantee of that and in any case the two options suggested by Centre have to be tried out first.
The letter proves that both these options were ruled out on October 26 vide letter addressed to Menino D’souza, Secretary, Education, Government of Goa by the Director of Higher Education, Government Of India.
Then letter states, “the proposal for setting up IIT at Cotarli Sanguem to have been examined by the Ministry and it is decided that the instant proposal cannot be accepted for reasons such as limited availability of utilisable land, presence of patches of private land, remote location with limited basic facilities such as hospital, schools and airport connectivity, etc.”
It requests the Goa government “to revisit the proposal dated 13.09.22 (identification of site of land by the State Government of Goa admeasuring 750000 sq mtrs at Village Cotari Sanguem and “reconsider the parcel of lands recommended by the Site Selection Committee earlier such as Dharbandora,Communidade Land at Canacona or Quitol or any other land of about 300 acres for setting up of the proposed campus of IIT Goa so that future growth of the institute does not suffer.
The letter from the Union Government dated October 26, has been accessed by the agitating farmers through RTI.
“Even after having known and being well informed that the project cannot be commissioned at Sanguem, local MLA Subhash Phal Desai kept on reiterating his stand that the project will come up at Sanguem itself.
Phal Desai made the agitating farmers continue with their agitation for over 70 days for no reason,” said one of the farmer leaders.
He further said “If the Government had made the contents of the letter known to the farmers, the incidents such as that of showing black flags to Sanguem MLA, and the sit-in agitation at Dando etc would have not happened.
Meanwhile, the farmers from Sanguem today received notices from the State Police Complaint Authority over the complaints lodged by them against the police for failure to initiate inquiry into complaints lodged by them against IIT supporter, backed by the MLA, for disrupting their meeting, and also for causing damages to the car owned by Santano Rodrigues an agitating farmer.
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Phal desai still insists IIT will come up at Sanguem, says “so-called” farmers trying to usurp govt land
Social Welfare Minister Subhash Phal Dessai said that when the Centre stated that some portion of land at Cotarli was not usable, he soon started a dialogue with private owners having their land adjacent to the proposed site. “I am talking to private landowners and are in the process of getting additional land for the IIT project,” he said.
He further said that the government has other plans ready and will ensure that the IIT comes up in Sanguem taluka.
When asked why the letter written by the Centre asking the State government to reconsider the parcel of land at Dharbandora and Quittol in Quepem taluka, was not revealed Phal Dessai said, “I am looking for dispute-free lands. The largest government holdings are in Sanguem taluka, I am also looking at the progress of Sanguem taluka, which always carried a stamp of backward taluka. I want to wipe it by bringing the prestigious IIT institute to Sanguem.”
He alleged that those opposing the proposed site neither had documents to prove that the land belonged to them, nor did they possess Kisan Cards to claim that they were farmers. They are trying to usurp the government land and in the past, the government had to demolish three houses built illegally on the government land. He said that these so-called farmers were quiet when two lakh square meters of thick jungle area was chopped by a private party.
