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Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Sunday expressed the state government’s willingness to shift the proposed Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Goa from Canacona to elsewhere in the state, provided the required land is made available to the government.
Parrikar was addressing a gathering during a function held in Ponda to inaugurate Goa Vidyaprasarak Mandal’s (GVM’s) school building.
The Chief Minister said, “People are opposing the setting up of IIT in Canacona because they have their own reasons for that. If people of Canacona don’t want IIT in their neighbourhood, the government is ready to shift it elsewhere in the state, provided the required land is made available to the government.”
Parrikar said that the IIT Goa requires around 250 acres of land and if any part of the state has that much of land, which can be utilised for the IIT, people should let the government know about it. He said that the government will send a team and inspect the land as early as possible.
During his speech, Parrikar also made it clear that the government has not yet changed its mind over setting up the IIT in Canacona. “Just because I said the government is ready to shift the IIT from Canacona to elsewhere in the state, that doesn’t mean we have stopped thinking about setting up the IIT in Canacona,” he said.
Minister for Public Works Ramakrishna Dhavalikar, Member of Parliament Narendra Sawaikar, Ponda MLA Ravi Naik, president of general body of GVM Bhasker Khandeparkar, chairman of working committee Krishna Shetye, secretary Deepak Gaonkar and others were present on the occasion.
Speaking further, the Chief Minister said that the educational syllabus in the state needs to be scrapped and that there is a need to replace it with a new one. He said that the state has good infrastructure for education but that there is a need for improvement in the quality of education. “Even after obtaining good marks in state exams, Goan students are unable to get good marks in national exams like NEET and there is a need to ponder over it,” Parrikar said.
Dhavalikar said that the people should support setting up of educational institutes in order to have good quality of education in the state. Ravi Naik too urged people to support so that the education sector grows further.