Team Herald
MARGAO: A group of Loliem villagers have given conditional support to the proposed IIT campus at Bhagwati plateau in Loliem and have successfully stayed the extraordinary gram sabha which was proposed to be held at Loliem on Sunday.
In a press briefing at Margao, Prashant Naik, chairman of Nirakar Education Society of Canacona; former sarpanchas Darshan Prabhugaonkar and Mohandas Lolienkar extended full support to the IIT at Loliem.
The Darshan and Mohandas had earlier filed a petition before the Director of Panchayats opposing the extraordinary gram sabha scheduled for September 25. The Director of Panchayats has stayed the gram sabha. Mohandas says, “We doubted the intention of the sarpanch and as far as we understand that the sarpanch has called the urgent meeting to save his chair from the panchas.”
“A group of people is opposing the IIT project under the garb of environment protection, when the entire village is in favour of it,” said Mohandas.
“When the matter is discussed in the gram sabha, it gives an impression that the entire village is opposing the IIT campus, when in fact, only a small group of villagers is opposing the same,” he said.
Mohandas said that the people who are opposing the IIT are not Lolienkars and the have no voting right in the village. “They have made no social contribution to the village at all,” he added.
The group has demanded that experts of IIT to be taken on board to explain to the people the impacts of the IIT on the village.
“All educational societies have decided to get experts involved and get the opinions of the entire people. The sarpanch has to still rethink and learn what is IIT,” said Prashant Naik.
“Educationists want the IIT, but a small section of the village is opposed to it. We have to see larger interest of the village over a little loss of environment as it has been always happening in the past — be it Goa University, St Xavier’s College at Mapusa, Don Bosco in Sulcorna so on and so forth,” said Prashant.
