SANGUEM: Farmers from Sanguem’s Cotarli village on Tuesday confronted survey officials who were demarcating land at the proposed IIT site, and demanded that they furnish the documents and orders issued for the demarcation process.
When farmer Joseph Fernandesquestioned the surveyors as to who issued them permission to conduct their survey, he was informed that the order was issued by the Office of the Collector. However, the surveyors were not able to produce the order issued by the Collector and claimed that they had left it at the office. The surveyors also said that the relevant documents were with another team which was simultaneously conducting survey operations on the other end of the land proposed for the IIT project.
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The farmers pointed out to the surveyors that they had flourishing cashew plantations on the land the government has chosen for the IIT project. Shortly after the confrontation, the police arrived on the spot, but the farmers had dispersed by then.
Sources said that the police later called the farmers who had confronted the team of survey officials, to the police station for questioning. The farmers however eluded their calls and refused to go to the police station, as they did not receive any official summons.
Threatening to hold mass agitations if the government goes ahead with the IIT on their agricultural land, the farmers also appealed to Sanguem MLA Subhash Phaldessai to take a tour of the proposed site along with them, but without the forceful use of government machinery.
