More voices against IIT campus at Loliem
CANACONA
The anti-IIT movement is gaining momentum with more people coming out openly to oppose the proposed IIT campus in Loliem village.
The latest to join the opposing villagers are five of the nine panchas, who openly vouched to stand besides and lend support to the residents.
At a meeting convened at Maxem on Sunday, which was reportedly called at the latest minute, hundreds of people, keeping aside their preparations for Ganesh Chaturthi, attended the meeting along with five Loliem-Polem panchas.
Residents of Carai and Mashem attended in large numbers to oppose the proposed IIT project. About 200 people were present.
During the meeting, Denis Fernandes, Abhijeet Prabhu Desai, Mandar Aiya, Kishore Painginkar and Amey Puranik spoke why the people need to oppose the project on the Bhagwati plateau.
The five panchayat members of Loliem-Polem - Caitani Dias, Shailesh Pagi, Santan da Costa, Virendra Naik and Rajesh Naik said they are with the public.
People also raised questions on how the authorities can take a decision without taking the people into confidence.
Citizens Committee of Loliem president Denis Fernandes said in the last gram sabha, the issue was not discussed even after giving a letter to the panchayat.
People raised their voices against the IIT campus saying that basic amenities like water, electricity, health facilities should be provided first. Garbage problem is a major problem in Canacona and ecological concerns besides threat to existence of wildlife must be addressed as early as possible, they said.
All the five panchas present are supporters of the sarpanch and members of the ruling group which supports IIT-Goa on Bhagwati plateau. The five panchas have assured that they will support the people in the gram sabha on the issue.
