The residents of the Aat village in Navsari district Thursday staged a protest against the upcoming GMERS Medical College to be built on the land used for cattle grazing by the villagers on the outskirts of the village. In a memorandum to Navsari Collector Amit Prakash Yadav, the villagers submitted that the government land chosen for the college-cum-hostel has been reserved for the tribal and Bakshipanch—a Scheduled Caste community, and hence, should not go ahead with the project. “The villagers are into animal husbandry and farming. The grazing land is the only one in the village. Even during the rainy season, the water gets accumulated on the same land as it is lower to the village land. The authorities will raise the land for construction of the college and the hostel campus. The villagers will face great problems during the rainy season," said Bharulata Patel, a UK-returned lawyer and resident of the village, who is spearheading the protest. She added that the college and hostel are built in violation of norms. "As per the rules, a medical college should be at the same complex as the hospital. Along with this, the distance between the medical college and hospital should be around 10 kilometres or the distance should be covered in just half an hour. The civil hospital is in Navsari while the medical college is in Aat village. The distance between them is 13 kilometres, which is also in violation of rules," she said. The college authorities have given admissions to 100 medical students for whom classes are being currently held at a local girls' school. The students of the girls' school have, in turn, been shifted to another location.
