Team Herald
QUEPEM: Sparks flew high in the Molcornem gram sabha when some villagers were stopped from raising the issue of proposed IIT project at Cotarli, Sanguem.
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The anti-IIT protestors were stopped by some villagers stating that the gram sabha was convened only to discuss the issue of Biodiversity Management Committees. This enraged the anti-IIT activists who claimed that IIT project is also part of biodiversity management. They demanded that the villagers should be taken into confidence.
During the gram sabha, the elected panchayat members took only agenda of constituting the Biodiversity Committee. Accordingly, a seven-member committee was elected.
N S Prabhu Malkarnekar, a villager said that he wanted to speak on the issue of IIT project but was not allowed to raise the issue in the gram Sabha when both, IIT and biodiversity are inter-related. He argued that there are dams and canals in the proposed IIT project area which fall under biodiversity management but this aspect was not taken up in the gram sabha
Malkarnekar alleged that Social Welfare Minister Subhash Phal Desai has decided to take the proposal from the village panchayat body directly and take it to the higher authorities despite the fact that the villagers are opposed to the project.
However, Molcornem Sarpanch Rajesh Gaokar said that the only topic that was discussed in the gram sabha was to set up a new committee for Biodiversity Management and how it will take forward the work of the previous committee.
He said that the outgoing committee did not submit its report in the gram sabha due to which future plans of the new biodiversity management were kept on hold.
