There is one suggestion that the opposition Congress has made that the government could consider seriously. The villagers of Melauli in Sattari have said no to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in their village. While Herald has always backed the setting up on an IIT or any institute of higher education in the State, there are a few points that the villagers of this area have made that make the area that has been identified questionable as the best site for the institute. Melauli is a forest area, the natural habitat of various species and as pointed out by the villages has been declared a biodiversity hotspot by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. If trees – according to estimates two lakh of them – in this area are to be cleared to make way for the IIT campus, if it will reduce agricultural land that the inhabitants of the area ciultivate, then the decision to set up the institute in this area will have to be reconsidered.
The suggestion made by the Congress is that the government drop Melauli as the site for the institute and have the IIT in one of the areas that had ben earlier earmarked for the Special Economic Zones (SEZ). Much of that land is now back with the government after a protracted battle. Though this land has been earmarked for industrial use, and not for institutional purposes, the change in zoning can be accomplished without much fuss. It is clear that the opposition from the villagers to the land being used for the IIT will not die down quickly, and the State does not require a lengthy conflict on this count, especially one that could impair its image nationally.
Setting up the IIT in Goa is part of a larger plan of the Union government to have these institutes across the country – one in every State. While other States will be lobbying to have such institutes, Goa has already lost time in the search for the land. As it is the IIT campus has been long delayed. It is almost four years since the institute was set up and has started functioning at a building in the Goa Engineering College at Farmagudi and it will not get its own campus so soon. It will take a few years before the IIT campus is constructed even after land has been allotted to it. Goa has already lost much time and decisions have to be taken fast. Goa cannot lose the opportunity of having an educational institute of such high standards just because it cannot offer land to the institute. If there is the possibility of offering the IIT land that has been vacated by the SEZ, then it will save a lot of time and the issue can be quickly be put behind.
If the State can handle this issue with some maturity before the opposition to the site makes it to the mainstream national media, giving Goa a bad reputation, it could take the steps required to realise its intention to promote Goa as an educational hub. It already has a Private University Act in the State, that was passed earlier this year. If the opposition to the land for the IIT gets more prominence, it could easily be misunderstood outside the State to mean that the people do not want such an institute. The truth is entirely different. The opposition is not to the institute but to the site that is a designated biodiversity hotspot in the Western Ghats, and that the livelihood of a large number of persons who live off the land will be affected. The government has to take a quick decision.