Raigad farmers meet minister over SEZ

Raigad’s farmers are up in arms against the government, which, they say, is working in favour of Reliance for the proposed SEZ in their area and for this purpose wants to establish that 22 villages do not come under the command area of the Hetwane dam.

On Friday, representatives of the Jagtikikaran Virodhi Kriti Samiti (JVKS) — the farmers’ organisation fighting against the Raigad SEZ — led by senior Peasants and Workers Party leader ND Patil met water resources minister Ajit Pawar and demanded the exclusion of the 22 villages from the SEZ acquisition plan. Pawar has convened a joint meeting with revenue minister Patangrao Kadam on February 11.

The JVKS says that the government has conspired against the people of these 22 villages since the irrigation department has allegedly altered its plan to show that only eight villages come under the dam’s command area.

The Samiti’s representative Ulka Mahajan, referring to the information it has gathered using the RTI, said: “A report, which was submitted two months ago to the irrigation department, claimed that only eight villages covering an area of 645 hectares come under the dam’s command area and hence are fertile. Our position is that an area of 3,700 hectares spread over 22 villages is under irrigation. The government will not keep its promise for the exclusion of these 22 villages. The entire irrigation plan was change to facilitate the SEZ.”