A day after the State cabinet decided to keep 45,000 sq meters of temple land out of the IIT Goa project, the villagers of Shel Melauli have written to the Chief Minister asking to stop illegal land grabbing in the name of big projects.
“We are shocked and deeply insulted to see that you held a press conference earlier today during which you stated that the cabinet has taken a decision to grant 45,000 sq m of land at sy no 67/1, Melauli village to our Jhalmi-Sateri Temple, and thereafter asked us to withdraw our agitation,” the letter from Melauli Panchkroshi Gram Bachao Andolan said.
It said that about 1,600 local residents of Melauli had written to CM about two months ago pointing out a number of legal, socio-economic and environmental reasons why our lands bearing sy no 67/1 of Melauli village should not be touched.
“Since these are the agricultural and forest lands of our land communities. It is most painful to have to remind you, our own Chief Minister, that you have completely failed to respond to our letter before placing the matter before the cabinet, especially when the entire local community is united behind the morally, legally and socio-economically correct position that the lands belong to the local communities, not the Government of Goa,” the letter reads.
The villagers expressed shock over the Government now trying to portray itself like a kind donor, giving 45,000 sq m of our own land to our temple.
“All of us know that the entire 12 lakhs sq m land bearing sy no 67/1 of Melauli village belong to our land communities, which include our temples and all religious places dispersed across the said lands, our agricultural lands, our forests, our grazing lands, our water resources, our tribal communities and other local communities,” they say.
The villagers said that they will not be fooled by the empty and insulting gesture of giving our land to our temple, when they are used to the idea that all lands belong to our temple and God, not to man of Government.
“Our tribal and other communities have lived on these lands for thousands of years without any interruption to our possession and use of these lands, which we can never be parted from. Your failure to see reason will only strengthen our resolve to protect our lands, and it is therefore best that you gracefully concede to our rightful demand to drop the proposal to locate IIT on our lands,” they said.
