There is a mini uprising in the barren plateau of Bhagwati, giving a queer twist to the development versus environment debate. A group of villagers calling themselves the ‘citizen’s committee of Loliem’ has gone into an agitation mode to stop an IIT, yes an IIT from being set up in a village which is crying for genuine opportunities.
The logic of this group baffles. The DNA of all citizen’s movements against mega projects and haphazard unstructured development has been against projects that bring in builders and hotel owners to exploit the land and its resources. The alternative to this kind of development has always been educational and technical institutions of excellence which will bring in the right kind of talent and give opportunities to our young to access the highest standards of global education at home. The reasons bandied by the Citizen’s Committee of Loliem, can not only be countered, but their act of coming up with vague reasons to oppose, with no tangible data to support lose unchecked claims needs to be called and condemned.
Here are the reasons put forth to oppose the project
Argument 1 The Plateau is sacred land and cannot be diverted from traditional uses
Response: With all due respect to both religion and a sacred space, this needs to be accentuated with empirical evidence. Firstly all the traditional uses need to be documented and then proven beyond doubt that the IIT specifically blocks the traditional uses irreversibly. Accepting unproven and lose assertions is out of order with the express disclaimer that that genuine religious and other sentiments can be addressed through discussion, and not as a tool block a project in a pre-determined manner.
And by the way, an Indian Institute of Technology, in our own backyard, with an opportunity for IITians of Goa, staying home and giving back to their land, is no less sacred a mission.
Argument 2: The land is on a plateau and the plateau will get destroyed
Response: The GEC campus is on the Farmagudi hill. The entire area has been transformed with educational institutions, including the temporary base of the new IIT. The Goa University is on a plateau and so are the colleges in Assagao. This argument has no signs of validity. However purely for arguments sake, those who are proposing it need to produce scientific evidence of how the presence of the IIT on the Bhagwati plateau will destroy this plateau when other plateaus of the State have thriving educational institutions.
The Birlas invested in a fertilizer factory Goa in 1966 and now have a full fledged BITS campus on the Sancoale plateau. And once the IIT comes up, Goa will be the second state after Rajasthan to have a BITS and an IIT. If the opposition to the IIT was based on real tangible reasons and not for the sake of opposition alone, the debate would have credence. Remember the people of Canacona do not brook any wrongs and have been the fiercest fighters against any forms of injustice. There are many of those- in academia, medicine and other respectable sphere’s of life, who have successfully agitated to protect the turtle nesting site in Galjibagh, which unlike Morjim, has indeed been cocooned and secured against the wrong kind of development onslaught. A large section of the locals who opposed mega projects and rose as one against hotel projects under the garb of residential projects, are now divided on IIT coming to their backyard. Those who are backing it include not just the Attorney of the Comunidade and the Sarpanch, but headmaster’s of schools, senior local journalists, engineers, hotel owners, former members of the armed forces, all credible people who command respect in the local society. They can only have the good of Canacona, Loliem and Poriem when they have openly backed the project and adopted (as professor Nandkumar Kamat says) the WIMBY (Welcome in My Backyard approach) instead of the usual NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) one.
The gaonkars of Loliem had resolved to give an NOC to the government to acquire 120 acres of land, to make Goa find a place on the IIT map of India. This is no massive hotel and golf course project sucking out underground water resources, destroying trees and robbing locals of their land and livelihood.
You cannot doubt an IIT. It comes with a template of excellence and responsibility
We say with absolute respect to those who have agitated, fought and gone to court to protect Goa. The ecosystem of saying no, to the destruction of Goa, loses its value when genuine signs of development are not marked yes.
