Panaji, Jan 21 (IANS): Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Thursday urged engineering students to counter the negative commentary against the government's development projects on social and mass media platforms, saying it was important to counter negative propaganda with facts.

Citing a case in point, Sawant said that the Sterlite-promoted Goa Tamnar Transmission Project Limited was crucial to the coastal state's power needs in the coming years and yet it was facing opposition from several quarters.

"People are opposing projects everywhere. The Tamnar project has seen opposition too. As you know it is a 400 KV line which is coming from Karnataka to Goa. If the Tamnar (power) line is not drawn over the next two years, then we will not be able to use ACs and fans," Sawant said, while addressing a gathering of students at the Goa College of Engineering in South Goa.

"Despite knowing this fact, how many of us are talking about it positively? We are only listening to negativity. It is our duty to write and talk on social media and electronic media. I am not even urging you to speak in favour of the government. Just state facts. You know the facts. The layman in a village does not know facts. He opposes (such projects) just because someone has planted it in his head," Sawant said.

"Being engineers you know the realistic situation of power (availability) in Goa. We expect that facts should be placed before the people who do not have any real information about the project. We expect these comments from you on issues related to the Tamnar, rail and road projects or IIT," the Chief Minister said.

A rail, road expansion project as well as an inter-state power transmission line venture have faced opposition politically as well as from civil society groups, who have claimed that the projects are being pushed at an "express pace" to facilitate movement of coal imported through the Mormugao Port Trust facility in Goa to steel mills in Karnataka's Bellary district and nearby areas.

Earlier this month, the Goa government was also forced to scrap its move to acquire land to set up an IIT-Goa campus in Melaulim village in North Goa, following protests.

Sawant said that if Goa is unable to provide land for an IIT, it would be a great loss for the coming generations.

"We had taken the IIT project to Melaulim with good intentions. There may have been opposition to the IIT project in Melaulim, but have we explained to the people why Goa needs an IIT?" Sawant said.

"We will face a great loss for the next 25 years. The next generation will blame us for it. If the CM alone speaks on this, it will be attributed to political motives by the opposition," he added.