More than 25,000 Project Affected People (PAPs) from 95 villages of Navi Mumbai and adjoining areas will hold a “CIDCO Gherao” protest in Belapur on June 24 to put pressure on CIDCO and the state government to name the proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) after late socialist D B Patil. For the last two years, they were not allowed to reach the CIDCO Bhawan in Belapur as they were stopped by the police at NMMC headquarters.
Villagers under the banner of the All-Party Action Committee (APAC) have been staging protests for the last year. They alleged that CIDCO and the state government have consistently ignored the demands of the project-affected villagers and there is anger among them. “On June 10, we held a grand chain agitation followed by a huge protest on June 24,” said Panvel MLA Prashant Thakur, a senior member of APAC. He added that they continued their protest despite an FIR being registered against them and held Torch Agitation on August 9, 2021, stop work agitation on January 24 and Black Day on March 17, 2022.
Villagers' representatives including MLA Prashant Thakur and MLA Mahesh Baldi had held a meeting with Sanjay Mukherjee, managing director and vice-chairman of CIDCO last year and discussed a host of issues but could not reach any conclusion on the naming of the airport.
APAC members alleged that the city was developed after acquiring land at a throwaway price and now most of the villagers have become poor. “The agricultural land was taken for the city and now farmers don’t have an occupation to run the family,” said Thakur.
“Villagers from Thane, Raigad, Palghar and Mumbai will join the protest at 11 am in Belapur near Croma shop and from there, we will march towards the CIDCO Bhawan,” said Shailesh Ghag, coordinator of APAC Navi Mumbai.
