The youth as well as the old in the small village of Melauli, in Sattari taluka are up in arms over the government decision to hand over 10 lakh square meter of government land to the IIT Goa.
The villagers are upset that for decades they have been demanding from successive governments to transfer the land in their names as they have been the custodians for decades since the erstwhile Portuguese regime.
The villagers feel that the government has failed the citizens overlooking their livelihood for bigger institutions.
Not only they question, why an institution like IIT requires 10,00,000 to 13,00,000 sq meter of land they also demand to know why the government is hell bent on destruction of environment.
Shubham Shivolkar, himself a B.tech student, says the area handed over to the IIT is rich in ecology and as such it would be a disaster.
“When the area falls under Eco-Sensitive Zone and Eco Sensitive zone, how can the IIT come up. It would be against the rules,” he said.
He said the bureaucrats as well as the politicians have connived to grant the land for iIT.
“There are eight natural springs in the plots and the government departments have given reports that there are no water bodies,” he said.
He further said that since they have been opposing IIT, the police has been unleashed on them by the government.
“We were detained and warned, while several villagers have been transferred for opposing IIT,” he said.
On July 9, Shubham and his friends addressing a press conference were detained for violating Section 144 during pandemic.
Another villager 75 yr old Ram Melekar says he has been cultivating the land for almost 45 years now.
“There has been several surveys but the government has never included the villagers’ names in the documents,” he said.
He said the government has even handed over the Devasthan land to the IIT.
Interestingly, local MLA and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane says “let the people oppose, till I am in Satteri politics, I will see that IIT comes up.”
He also challenged people to oppose and get the project dropped.
“The villagers are being instigated by few people, they are being misguided about the IIT. Let me tell you the IIT will bring big employment and big development in the locality,” he says.