Valpoi: The meeting called by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday to break ice with the anti-IIT protestors from Melavali village in Sattari seems to have gone in vain. The villagers have continued their agitation refusing to concede to the demand of the CM that they would be compensated for the loss of land.
Several villagers, largely women, on Tuesday blocked the road at Melauli on the way to the proposed site for IIT when government officials arrived to resume the demarcation of land.
Despite strong police presence, the officials were not allowed to enter the village.
The villagers claimed that they are not satisfied with their meeting with Chief Minister. “When we raised objection to the proposal, CM got up and started walking,” they claimed quoting the Panaji meeting.
They have said that their single point demand is to cancel the IIT project and shift it out of their village and give them the ownership of Alvara land in class ‘A’ category.
The villagers are staying in their own land since past many decades and cultivating the different types of agriculture crops on this Alvara land.
The Goa government have declared this land as the Alvara land. We have already submitted the documents files of Alvara land to the Government for the ownership of land. The Government is not ready to give the ownership of Alvara land in class ‘A’ category, they say.
The villagers have said that their agitation will continue till IIT project is scrapped.
“We dont want the IIT project in our village. The project will destroy the ecology of our village. We want to save the ecology of our village and for that we are ready to die,” they say.
