PANAJI: After sweeping Sattari taluka in the zilla panchayat (ZP) polls, health minister Vishwajit Rane on Monday urged chief minister Pramod Sawant to go ahead with plans for setting up IIT-Goa at Melaulim in Sattari.
Speaking to reporters, Rane said “I have not publicly spoken about the IIT-Goa issue. IIT will definitely come up. I want to publicly urge the chief minister that if he wants to set up the IIT, then you have to start the process of setting it up immediately.”
Candidates backed by Rane won all ZP constituencies in Sattari including Honda, Querim, Nagargao and Usgao-Ganje. “During the election we tried to take opinion from the people and the results have been good,” he said.
Rane added that because around 600 people from two villages are protesting, “we have taken this issue to entire of Sattari and people have told us to do what is good for the development of Sattari and the neighbouring constituency of the chief minister”. “People have reposed faith in BJP,” he added.
The proposed campus for the institute in Melaulim had sparked sharp protests from locals who have been strongly opposing the setting up of IIT-Goa in their village and had even blocked authorities in the past from entering their village and to the proposed project site.
Rane said that BJP had gone to the people with the ideology of the party and with the work done by the government during the pandemic. “We have gone to people with a positive mind and the government will fulfill all the assurances given to the people of the state,” he said.
We have taken the issue to entire Sattari and people have told us to do what is good for the development of Sattari and the neighbouring constituency. He also said that he had gone to every nook and corner of Sattari and people told him to do what is in the interest of Sattari. People have reposed faith in BJP