Melauli youth tie rakhis to trees on Raksha Bhandan

VALPOI: Youth of Shel Melauli village celebrated the ‘Raksha Bandhan’ by tying rakhis to forest trees in the village on Sunday.
“Nowadays humans’ best friend, besides brother and sister, is our beautiful nature. So keeping this in mind, all villagers from Shel Melauli, Murmune, Dhada, Paikul, and Maigine celebrated ‘Raksha Bandhan’ by tying  rakhis to the trees,” said a villager.
“Since last year we are celebrating the ‘Vruksha bandhan’ by tying rakhis to our village forest trees to save our village nature. We had protested the IIT project to save our nature and to save our ancestors’ property. So we demand the Government withdraw all the criminal cases against the Melauli villagers, which were registered during the Shel Melauli protest against the IIT project. Also we request the government to give the ownership of our own land which has been registered in the name of the IIT project on 1/14 form by Goa Government,” said another villager Shashikant Sawardekar.
“We demand the Government grant full ownership of our own land which is in the name of IIT project, on 1/14 form of Revenue Department. The IIT project has been cancelled from Melauli, so now we demand the BJP government withdraw the criminal cases against the Shel Melauli villagers. If the BJP government fails to fulfil our demand then, we will come on the road against the government,” warned Shel Melauli villagers.