Goa, July 27 -- Santosh Naik

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PONDA: The proposed Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at the Farmagudi GEC Plateau ran into a wall of opposition on Sunday, with Bandora villagers unanimously rejecting the project and warning that construction on the plateau could destroy a critical water-recharge system and leave communities at its foothills facing an acute water crisis.

The villagers told the Gram Sabha that the issue was not merely about constructing another institution on government-acquired land, but about the fate of a plateau that sustains the water systems, agricultural lands and biodiversity of several surrounding villages.

They warned that an IIT campus accommodating thousands of students, staff and workers ...