Sanguem: The farmers opposing the IIT project at Sanguem’s Cotarli village continued their sit-in agitation for the second consecutive day on Tuesday. With Section 144 imposed around the proposed site for the institution, the farmers cannot gather in large numbers at their agricultural lands and are staging their protest from the verandah of a residential house at Dando.
The agitation, which began with only a handful of farmers, has grown with agriculturists and activists from surrounding areas joining their ranks, posing a cause for concern to the government and Sanguem MLA Subhash Phaldessai.
Speaking at the sit-in agitation, farmer Dattaram Gaonkar urged Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to visit the proposed site personally before giving his support to the idea proposed by the Sanguem MLA. “Phaldessai is all out to cause environmental damage in the village and destroy the pristine farmlands which surround the proposed site,” he claimed.
Another farmer Rupabai Chari questioned the government’s insistence on constructing the IIT campus on their agricultural plantations at Cotarli, which their families had cultivated for generations when there are abundant barren lands available elsewhere.
“We had elected Phaldessai as a guardian of the Sanguem constituency, but reality has hit us, and instead of protecting our agricultural plantations, the government wants to destroy them,” she said. “We have all the documents to prove our possession, but the authorities are not willing to hear us out,” said Agusta Fernandes, an elderly protestor.
The agitating farmers said that the sit-in agitation will continue until the authorities listen to their grievances and get the project shifted elsewhere.
