Land for IIT Goa likely to be announced post polls

Panaji: The government, in all probability, will not be announcing the land selected for setting up the permanent campus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Goa, during the remaining four months of its tenure.

Highly placed sources informed ‘The Navhind Times’ that although a committee set up by the government to identify this land has come out with some recommendations, the government will not take any risk as regards public ire by announcing the identified land.

“If people from the area in which the particular land is located start agitating against the IIT Goa campus project, then it could harm the electoral prospects of the ruling party in that area,” the sources maintained.

Incidentally, the temporary IIT Goa campus, presently located on the Farmagudi Plateau, has completed five years. Furthermore, Prof B K Mishra, the director of IIT Goa, which became operational in 2016, would be retiring from the post in March 2022. He, however, is expected to continue at the institute in the capacity of senior faculty.

Meanwhile, Mishra has written a letter to the education secretary, requesting him to convene a meeting for discussing the problems faced by the IIT Goa, due to the constraints of its campus.

The problems include the limited 600-student capacity hostel and insufficient place for carrying out research projects of the institute.

IIT Goa could face severe problems if its students, who are presently attending their classes in virtual format, return to attend the physical classes and demand independent rooms in the hostel due to the pandemic scare. In case, these students refuse to share their hostel rooms, the institute would not be able to provide an independent room to each student.

Furthermore, IIT Goa has not been able to purchase any equipment due to paucity of space in its present campus, and therefore, has lost a number of major research projects.    

The committee, set up by the government to identify land for IIT Goa, which consists of both the District Magistrates, Secretary (Revenue), Secretary (Education), director of technical education and director of settlement and land records, has located some lands for the permanent campus of the institution. However, the government needs to select one of these lands.

As per the information received from the highly placed sources, it now appears that the present government wants to pass on the responsibility of announcing this land to the new government, which will come to power in the state, in 2022.

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