SANGUEM: In an alleged bid to silence farmers agitating and opposing the proposed IIT project at Sanguem, local police have begun filing complaints against the agrarian taluka’s farming community before the Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of Sanguem.
Till date, five farmers have received the summons from the office of the SDM, for scheduled hearings in the first week of August, under Section 107 of CrPC for ‘preventive action against the opponents as there is every possibility of breach of peace and tranquillity by the opponents’.
Incidentally, these five were in the forefront of the recent agitation against the proposed site for the IIT and had been most vocal during farmers’ meetings and to the media, protesting Sanguem MLA Subhash Phal Dessai’s move to set up the institute on cultivated land at Sanguem.
Now, with criminal complaints being filed against the core group of protestors, who will be required to furnish personal bonds to maintain peace for the next six months, the farmers will not be able to voice their grievances but will be forced to be silent spectators to the developments on the proposed site.
Meanwhile, the farmers have slammed police inaction over the complaint filed by them against the pro-IIT activists who disrupted the farmers meeting held on July 17.
“The police has been extremely swift in filing complaints against us, but they have ignored our formal complaint against the IIT supporters who barged into our farmers meeting and prevented us from even discussing the matter,” said a farmer. The farmers who have received summons from the SDM include Pedro Cruz, Maria Cruz, Anifa Mascarenhas, Melita and Sanjay Mapari.
