Threaten to escalate agitation to protect livelihood
Villagers of Loliem and Poinguinim addressing the media on their opposition to projects on the comunidade land.
Photo Credits: Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO
Villagers of Loliem and Poinguinim have upped the ante against the allotment of comunidade lands as they have petitioned the comunidades and the authorities to stop the allotment of plateau lands of their villages.
Hoping that better sense will prevail over greed, the villagers of Loliem and Poinguinim on Friday said they are prepared to take the struggle to whatever levels necessary, in order to conserve their plateaus and for their own survival.
The residents of Loliem and Poinguinim have been involved in a long-drawn-out struggle to conserve their plateaus, and have successfully fended off numerous attempts to construct on the plateaus since 2006, including four large eco-tourism sites, IIT, industrial estate, and proposals for sub-divided plots.
Addressing the media on Friday, Prashant Pagi, former Loliem sarpanch Shailesh Pagi and others said the villagers said they now face new threats to their plateaus as the Comunidades of Loliem and Poinguinim are in an unholy haste to sell off these lands to the highest bidder. Citing critical water resources, grazing lands of cattle, agriculture, forest produce, wildlife, biodiversity and various environmental services provided by the plateaus, both the villages have already adopted gram sabha resolutions to conserve the plateaus.
They, however, lamented that the comunidades have turned a blind eye to the law and are processing applications for various grants of plateau lands for non-traditional uses. “Comunidade of Poinguinim is processing an application for road access across the Kulti plateau to a private individual’s steep strip of land which already has access from the main village road at its bottom. Comunidade records reveal that the road access is actually desired by the comunidade members themselves, only to sell the plateau lands. Comunidade of Loliem is holding a general body meeting on July 6, where numerous applications are sought to be approved,” they said.
They added; “Local MLA Ramesh Tawadkar, under the name of Mallikarjun Multifruits Processing and Producer Co Ltd, leads the charge with eight applications for a total of 1,00,000 sqm at Madditolop plateau. Proposals for a solar plant, a building for comunidade to generate revenue, a Sainik School by a private party, and a cricket ground are also to be considered, in contempt of the law and the people.”
