Melauli locals prevent govt officials from demarcating land for IIT project

VALPOI: Melauli villagers on Tuesday continued with their protests against the proposed IIT project in the village by resorting to road blockade and prevented the government officials, who had arrived for the demarcation of IIT proposed land, from entering the village.

The villagers complained that the government is not ready to fulfil their demands.

Following Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s discussion with them at the meeting on Monday, the Melauli villagers were visibly upset over the government officials’ presence in the village on Tuesday.

The locals reiterated their demand to cancel the IIT project from Melauli village and give them the ownership of Alvara land in Class ‘A’ category. The villagers are residing on the land for the last several decades and cultivating the various crops on the Alvara land. 

“The State government has declared this land as Alvara land. We have already submitted the Alvara document files to the Government for land ownership. The government is not ready to give the ownership of Alvara land in Class ‘A’ category,” the villagers complained.

“The government is not ready to fulfil the villager’s demands. We will continue our protest against the proposed IIT project in Melauli, by blocking the village road,” the locals warned. 

Around thousand villagers were present during the protest on Tuesday including several women.

“We don’t want the IIT project in our village. The project will destroy the ecology of our village. We want to save the ecology of our village and for that we are ready to die,” said an elderly woman.

“Now, we will continue our protest against the IIT project in our village. We don’t want the IIT project in our village. We want the ownership of our land,” said another aged woman.