First fulfil promises made in 1970: Panvel farmers to government

Farmers in areas surrounding Panvel, where the new airport will come up, are anxious about their future. They are worried if the government will be able to deliver on the promises it will make during the land acquisition process. Hence, rather than raise the current issues, they want the government to first fulfil the promises it made to farmers whose land CIDCO acquired in 1970 to develop the Navi Mumbai township.

Farmers of the 18 villages who are going to lose their land are therefore jittery. “We are not opposing the airport as it is important for the country’s progress,” said Mahindra Patil, sarpanch of Paargaon village, which is 3kms from Panvel railway station. “But we want CIDCO to first rehabilitate farmers whose land it took in 1970 to build the Navi Mumbai township,” he said. Patil is one of the members of the Navi Mumbai Antarashtriya Prakalp Baadhit Sangharsh Samiti (NMAPBSS), a body of 18 villages that will be affected by the airport project.

When CIDCO took the lands 39 years ago, farmers were promised 12.5% of the land, besides compensation. “A lot of the farmers are still waiting for their plots and the government has not even given them a letter of intent, let alone allotment,” he said.

NMAPBSS wants rehabilitation for its brethren who were affected by the satellite township. “A lot of farmers had gone to the high court and had won crores in compensation, which, too, they have not received. Moreover, those who lost their land built houses in the neighbouring areas. We want the government to regularise these too,” said another member.