After being tossed like a tennis ball, the hunt for land to set up Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Goa campus has finally landed at Rivona in Sanguem taluka, after villagers from nearby Cortali had earlier rejected the project. Local MLA and Social Welfare Minister Subhash Phal Desai is very keen to get the IIT to Sanguem. But the local residents have not been supportive of his plans. Now all eyes are on the Rivonkars.
Significantly, locals from three villages in three different talukas of the State stoutly opposed attempts to set up this college in their serene surroundings.
It is indeed surprising that there is not even a murmur of protest against this institute in Rivona thereby indicating that the people have given their tacit support to it.
Locals from Loliem in Canacona taluka, Xel-Melauli in Sattari taluka and Cotarli from Sanguem taluka had said a firm NO to setting it up in their sylvan setting.
Goa was allotted IIT in 2014 and since then, efforts have been on to find a suitable place for its campus. The college started operating in July 2016 in the Goa Engineering College premises at Farmagudi, where it continues till date, even though initially it was supposed to be there for only three years.
As soon as the IIT was sanctioned for Goa, the search for its campus began and the first choice was the Bhagwati Plateau in Loliem-Polem village. However, environmentalists and the locals objected to it.
The educated and working people from this village while continuing to be voters here, live elsewhere for their livelihood and hence though they supported the project, mobilising them was difficult as they were spread too far and wide.
As there were conflicting opinions, the then sarpanch of Loliem-Polem Bhushan Prabhugaonkar called for a gram sabha in November 2016 which had a record of over 2,000 people attending and many of them could not even sign the register.
While the general consensus at this gram sabha was to support the IIT, there was no official resolution adopted since the meeting was called only to explain what the project was about.
But taking advantage of this lacunae, opponents to the IIT held a parallel gram sabha immediately thereafter and resolved to oppose the IIT.
The then MLA, Isidore Fernandes succumbing to pressure from the clergy, opted to oppose the project and via a tacit understanding with then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, very silently shifted the IIT away from Canacona taluka.
It was then proposed to set it up at Guleli in Sattari taluka, where an area of 320 acres was identified. However, in May 2020 Chief Minister Pamod Sawant handed over documents transferring 10 lakh sq mts of land at Melaulim and not Guleli, to set up the IIT.
This led to another battle royal, which turned into actually a battle over rights to the land of the area where most of the inhabitants are considered to be encroachers. Most of the land in this village is either given as aframento, alvaro of which the government is considered to be the owner, or Mokaso land which is believed to be of people known as “Kashe” like the Rane family.
Initially the objection at Melaulim was that it was at the foothills of Western Ghats, which is an ecologically fragile area. It has cashew plantations, which has fed their families for generations and hence demanded that the government look out for alternate sites.
In fact, Town and Country Planning Minister, Vishwajit Rane, who was strongly pressing for setting up the IIT at Melauli, argued that since the land belonged to the government, there would be no problem in its transfer. However, nobody anticipated how the threat of losing the little right they had over the land, galvanised the people not only of Melauli, but even neighbouring villages, to oppose it and it truly became a people’s movement.
In a unique form of protest in August 2020, the Melauli villagers tied rakhis to trees in the village, which they said would be cut to set up the IIT campus. This was similar to the Chipko movement in North India, where people hugged trees to prevent their felling.
The local belief of bhar or possession also played a significant role in Melauli and the authorities realising that the situation was going out of hand, retreated in January 2021 and search began for another site.
At this moment, once again Canacona grabbed headlines as it was proposed to be set up on the Kulti plateau at Poinguinim. At the same time, WRD Minister Subhash Shirodkar, who has created an educational hub in Shiroda, said he would look out for a place to set up the IIT campus in Shiroda.
Then the government suggested setting it up at Cotarli in Sanguem taluka where land admeasuring 7.5 lakh sq mts was earmarked. However, the locals began protesting against this plan, even though local MLA Subhash Phal Desai was backing it.
However, vide letter dated October 26, 2022, Adviser (IITs) to the Ministry, Manmohan Kaur informed Secretary for Technical Education, Goa government that the proposal could not be accepted and gave three reasons for it.
The first reason cited was “limited availability of utilisable land”. The second reason was the presence of privately owned land and thirdly because it was in a remote area, lacking “basic facilities like hospital, schools and long distance from the airport”.
The point is that Rivona too is remote and lacks hospitals, schools and is far from the airport. So whether it will really be set up there is still a big question.
