By Deeksha Teri,TN Education Desk

Copyright timesnownews

In an unexpected twist, the Goa government has announced that it has scrapped plans to set up an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Goa campus at Codar village. This announcement was made by the Industries Minister Subhash Shirodkar, who hosted a press conference locally to announce the news which has sparked disappointment among engineering students, but has also brough appreciation from locals. The Minister claimed that the decision has been taken by the Goa Chief Minister, Pramod Sawant. “CM Sawant told me that we don’t want to force the project on the people of that village,” he was quoted saying by PTI. This announcement comes after residents of Codar, who are mostly farmers, had opposed the construction of new IIT Goa campus as they fear that this will destroy the natural habitat and adversely impact their livelihood. “I held a discussion yesterday (Saturday) with CM Pramod Sawant and he said that if people do not want the project, we will not bulldoze it. In the end, it is an educational project, it should have the support and cooperation of the locals,” he said. Shirodkar, however, said the IIT campus at Codar, which falls in his assembly constituency, would have brought development to the area. “Almost every state has an IIT and others are seeking one. A time will come when once all states are covered, one IIT may come up in every district. IIT also puts a lot of stress on research, that is why I wanted it to come to our region. It would create an atmosphere of research among youth and some community research projects could have benefitted us,” he said as per local media. However, given the continuous protest by locals, the Goa CM has decided to not go ahead with the construction and has permanently scrapped the project. The engineering college will function at the current location, the Minister said. “Now, IIT will continue functioning at Farmagudi in Ponda, where it is currently based, though with inconvenience,” he said, citing that there was no scope for expansion at the current location. However, he also added that the Goa government will look for a new site. IIT Goa was established in 2016 in a temporary campus housed at Goa Engineering College (GEC), which is located at Farmagudi, Goa. The government engineering institute offers BTech, MTech and PhD courses in various core and one non-core branches majorly in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics and Computing from the same Farmagudi campus.