Team Herald
MARGAO: The meeting scheduled on Tuesday with the Collector over the land acquisition for the proposed IIT at Cotarli in Sanguem taluka did not take place as there has been no response from the government to the deliberations that were held earlier.
Dr Deepak Gaitonde, the nodal officer for IIT, said the minutes of the last meeting held on October 30 were sent to the authorities and their response was still awaited and though Collector Anjali Sehrawat asked if anybody else wanted to discuss something all said further discussions would be valid only after getting the government approval for the land.
Once the land is agreed upon a team will visit the site to inspect it and only if this appraisal committee approves, the land acquisition will actually commence.
At Tuesday’s meeting there were three private land owners who expressed their willingness to sell the land to the government provided they get a fair price and sought to know when they should give their consent letter.
It was also pointed out that there was a litigation pending in the High Court over ownership of part of the land and the Collector pointed out that the compensation would be paid to whoever the court decrees to be the owner.
Incidentally, IIT is looking for land admeasuring around 1 lakh square metres and nearly 9.23 lakh sq mts of the land identified at Cotarli belongs to the government.
