Taking a U-turn on the IIT-Goa campus project, state Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on Tuesday urged the Chief Minister to withdraw the project from his Valpoi Assembly constituency in North Goa in view of public protests. Rane, who earlier repeatedly insisted on going ahead with the construction of the Indian Institute of Technology-Goa campus at Melaulim village at any cost , has now cited popular sentiments against the project for his about-turn. I have written to CM Pramod Sawant that I do not want an IIT in my constituency. I have taken this decision in the people s interest. the people s sentiments are against the IIT, Rane said in a video message on the social media.
Political fissures appear to have developed in the Goa cabinet over the construction of a much-delayed IIT-Goa campus in North Goa s Valpoi assembly constituency, even as tremors of an old rivalry between Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Health .
GPCC president Girish Chodankar (File photo)
Sattari People s power compelled Goa Minister Vishwajit Rane to change his stand on IIT : Girish Chodankar ANI | Updated: Jan 12, 2021 22:07 IST
Panaji (Goa) [India], January 12 (ANI): The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) has congratulated the people of Shel-Melauli and said that People s Power has won as Health Minister Vishwajit Rane wrote to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant demanding scrapping of proposed Indian Institue of Technology (IIT) project in Sattari after realising the growing support to the Anti-IIT protests from across Goa .
The Goa government on Tuesday demarcated the land for the proposed Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campus at Shel-Melauli village in Sattari taluka of North Goa amid heavy police deployment and protests. Locals from the village are opposing the IIT project claiming that the facility would rob them of their land.