Residents of Ramnathi village in North Goa district, where the Sanatan Sanstha is headquartered, have demanded a ban on the right-wing outfit and urged the state government to ensure that its ashram is shifted out of their area, failing which they would intensify their agitation against them and their ‘sadhaks’ (seers).
The villagers have given the state government a week’s time to ban the Sanstha or shift the ashram at Ramnathi, saying that they would organise a rally at Ponda (taluka) bus stand if their demands are not met.
This is not the first time the villagers have protested against the Sanstha based in Ramnathi in Ponda. They had protested against the Sanstha after the 2009 bomb blasts too, when mastermind Gonda Patil and accomplice Yogesh Naik, both members of the Sanstha, died while ferrying IEDs on their scooter to a Diwali gathering in Margao, 35 km from Panaji.
Village sarpanch Shamila Lotlikar claimed that she has been approached by several residents with a demand that the ashram be shifted from Ramnathi, following which she appealed to Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar to do so immediately.