PANJIM: Supporting the setting up of all-India institutes in Goa, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Sunday emphasized that Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) institute in the State will improvise synergy of education equation while also stating that Goan students will not be entitled for reservation of seats.
“The synergy created and the advantage we can have for engineering colleges and other studies is immense,” he told a section of the media after a brief interaction with Human Resource Development Minister, Smriti Irani at Dona Paula.
Parrikar replied in negative to a question whether seats would be reserved for Goan students considering the government’s proposal for setting up the institute in Goa. “Hotel (IHM institute) and NIT is a different issue, and IIT is a different issue. It (reservations of seats) is not possible in IIT because it has common entrant across the country,” he explained.
“Some people put it to direct equation of how many students from Goa will be inducted for IIT… not beyond 10 or 20 (students) because it an all India institution…” the IIT alumnus added.
He said that the State government has already conveyed to the Centre about acquiring a land for setting up the institutes, but it is waiting for the budget. “We will support them by (providing) land; the rest will be done by the Centre. We are waiting for the budget…” he said.
Asked about the meeting of IIT directors with Irani, he said the meeting was deliberation on the improvement in quality of IIT studies. “I was not there for the entire meeting…I had given inputs to her long back and probably the inputs are common by all because these are required to make IIT the focus point…” he added. He also went on to say that IIT institutes probably want to look for other institutes also to create synergy besides itself.
The union minister was on a daylong visit to Goa to address IIT directors, but refused to speak to the media despite several attempts.
The Chief Minister had last week told reporters that the State inclined to set up All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), IIT and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and that the Union government had asked the State to submit a proposal within 30 days over the setting up of AIIMS in Goa.
