Panaji: Although Chief Minister Pramod Sawant claims that there has never been a proposal to set up Indian Institute of Technology campus at Tuem in Pernem taluka, the official record clearly indicates that such a proposal was moved by the government on May 7, 2021.

Highly placed sources informed ‘The Navhind Times’ that the revenue department had moved a proposal on May 7 directing the concerned officials to identify a tract of land at Tuem for setting up the IIT project, after it received a letter from one person indentified as Mahale.

A report submitted by Pernem mamlatdar Anant Malik in a month’s time to the North Goa collector office maintained that the proposal for identifying the land in the taluka for the IIT campus was moved by the government.

“With reference to the above cited subject, it is submitted that the report has been called from the talathi of Pernem Saza. The talathi reported that there is no any freehold government land as well as private land for setting up of the IIT project,” the report stated.

The state government is yet to finalise a site to establish the IIT project in the state after the project was shifted from the Melauli village of Sattari taluka in January this year.