4K farmers likely to gather to protest against project

4K farmers likely to gather to protest against project

Pune: About 4,000 members of seven different villages will be holding a gram sabha at Pargaon village on Monday to protest against the Purandar airport project. The farmers of Purandar taluka allege that the authorities have kept them in the dark about the project details.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Airport Development Company Limited (MADC) and the Pune District Collectorate officials are in talks with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to decide on the model of land acquisition to be adopted while acquiring land for the airport from farmers.

About 2,376 hectares of land is required for the airport, of which only 200 hectares is available with the government. The remaining land has to be acquired from farmers of the seven villages: Ekhatpur, Munjvadi, Kumbharvalan, Vanpuri, Udachiwadi, Khanvadi and Patharwadi.

Speaking about the motive behind organising the gram sabha, Jitendra Memane, former sarpanch of Pargaon village, said that the government is not ready to inform the farmers about the developments that are taking place for Purandar airport.

“They want our fertile land and we are not ready to part with it. There is acres of land available just 10 km from Purandar. Why is the government not thinking of an airport there? We will write to the president or willingly commit suicide to oppose the project,” Memane added.

Another protester, Datta Zurange, said, “We have not been kept in loop by the government on the development of the project.”

Earlier, Pune District Collector Saurabh Rao had said that as the coordinates of the land to be acquired were not decided, hence, the authorities did not communicate with the villagers. Rao said that now the proper coordinates have been decided and the administration will soon send notices to the villagers. Rao said that the work of preparing a detailed project report of Purandar airport and work of land acquisition will run parallel to save time.

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