Mumbai: Around 100 project-affected farmers from Satara, who were moving towards Mumbai in semi-nude position to seek justice from the state government, were stopped by the police at Mankhurd, the boundary of Mumbai. The farmers started the march under the banner of Kisan Manch from January 12 from Satara to seek justice from the state government as they were forced to evacuate twice for the govt project.
The Industries Minister, Subhash Desai, has assured to meet the delegation in Mantralaya on Monday. Around 850 acres of agriculture land of the farmers from ten villages including Kesurdi in Khandala tehsil of Satara district was acquired by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) for phase-one of its irrigation project. Again 830 acre land was acquired for phase-II by the MIDC.
Udayan Raje Bhosale, Member of Parliament of NCP, has written a letter to CM Devendra Fadnavis on January 4 and urged to remove the land of the farmers who are against the acquisition.“Farmers have already been suffered by the Krishna Valley irrigation projects. Again 100 acre land from the same villages were acquired for building National Highway and they were given very less compensation. Hence, the land would be removed from the acquisition,” Bhosale demanded.
The semi-nude farmers reached to Mankhurd on Sunday where they were forced to dismantle the march by the police and asked them to visit Mantralaya with a small delegation. The farmers were disallowed to enter Mumbai. Their demands includes, the government should not acquire land forcefully for the MIDC, locals should get employment in companies which will be started by acquiring their land, basic amenities like electricity, road network and water supply should be provided, adequate compensation should be given to affected families and Rs 50,000 as a one-time unemployment allowance to be given to the affected person.
Pramod Jadhav, president of Kisan Manch, threatened that if the government fail to fulfil their demands, they will hold ‘Jal Samadhi’ protest with family in Nira River. “Police asked us to form a delegation of 4-5 persons and they will take us directly to Mantralaya by vehicle instead of walking. We will try to enter state secretariat with semi-nude as a protest,” said Jadhav.
