Officials speaking to the farmers during the protest
Gomantak Times
On Sunday, February 27, farmers from Warkhand-Nagzar, Tulaskarwadi-Dhargal staged a protest against the ongoing work of the link road to Mopa despite a stop-work notice issued by the Warkhand Panchayat.
The farmers said that the Sarpanch of Warkhand Panchayat, Sanjay Tulaskar, had issued a notice to stop the work, after he received a complaint by the villagers, that the work was done illegally.
He asked the executing company to submit all documents and hence the work was stopped. However, on the next day, the government officials including the land acquisition officer were seen at the site restarting with the work.
The farmers said that if everything was legal, the authorities could have easily submitted all documents to the Panchayat before restarting the work.
The protests have issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the police to take action against the ongoing work of the link road to Mopa. They have also decided to approach the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
The protest on Sunday, went on for nearly four hours which also was 'rasta roko' (a protest in which road traffic is disrupted by a large group of protestors).
Farmers chanted slogans against the government's land acquisition officials and accused them for ruining their livelihood by illegally cutting fruit-bearing trees.
Officials rushed to the scene to persuade the protesters, but the protestors insisted on delaying the roadwork and urged PI Pernem to act, with the latter telling the protesters that he needed to talk with his superiors.
The protest was conducted under the banner of the Dhargal Mopa Shetkari Sangharsh Samiti and was support by various organizations from Pernem taluka and other parts of the state.
Apart from the affected farmers, several activists and social workers joined the protest to express their support to the farmers.
Sarpanch of Warkhand-Nagzar Sanjay Tulaskar, Bharat Bagkar, Baya Varak, advocate Prasad Shahapurkar, advocate Jitendra Gavkar, Roshan Mathias, Uday Mahale and others were present.