PANAJI
The tribal population and farmers of Sanguem and Quepem have alleged that Pramod Sawant-government was adopting a dictatorial attitude to acquire their land for setting up a permanent campus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Sanguem without their consent.
The aggrieved group, while addressing the media amid huge police presence at Azad Maidan in Panaji on Tuesday, clarified that while they are not against the project, their main opposition is to the unlawful grabbing of their agricultural land.
“The government is not willing to interact with us on the issue. They want “to do a settlement” but we refuse to fall prey to their agenda. We have been cultivating this land for around 50 years, and have all the documents to show that it is not government property. But our government has resorted to dictatorship,” Mapari, one of the affected farmers said.
Carrying placards with slogans expressing their anger on the manner in which the government is proceeding with the matter, they further alleged misuse of the State machinery to harass them. “We are being spied on. Even after the First Information Report (FIR) was registered against us, we are being threatened to give away our fields for the IIT. The police are doing their job but they are troubling us at the behest of the government,” another farmer alleged.
“We want IIT in Goa but not in our fields,” he said in reply to a media question if they oppose the project as a whole.
Constancio Mascarenhas said they have alerted the people of both the talukas to be prepared for constant attacks on the underprivileged and local communities by some greedy people.
“If the IIT project is allowed, not just us, but large numbers of other locals of these talukas who are denied land rights even today, will also be displaced by real estate speculation. Our CM is said to be coming to Sanguem tomorrow (Wednesday) to lay the foundation stone for a new temple for our Paik Dev, whose lands he is ironically trying to grab at the same time. In view of the blatant arrogance of the government, it is necessary that all of us must unite and force the government to drop the ill-intended propaganda,” he stated.
The locals have demanded to relocate the project to Farmagudi and Sancoale instead.
