Pune: Project Affected People (PAP) of the Bhama Askhed project staged a protest at the district collectorate office on Wednesday afternoon demanding land as compensation for their acquired land. The protestors warned of stopping the ongoing project work of the dam if their demands are not met.
Speaking on the issue, Laxmanrao Pasalkar, member of one of the organisations fighting for rights of the PAP, said that around 1,400 farmers are yet to be compensated. "The authorities are offering money as compensation based on the current ready reckoner rate, which is too less and so we have asked for land as compensation," added Pasalkar.
Additional Collector Ramesh Kale said that giving land as compensation for land acquired to 1400 farmers is not possible, as in that case, it will require more than 2000 acres of land. "We have written to the government to provide monetary compensation to the farmers as per the ready reckoner rate. As the two corporation bodies of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad will be benefited by the project, the government will direct the corporations to compensate the farmers," added Kale.
The Additional Collector said that earlier they had started the process of providing alternate land to PAP but as there was less amount of land and more PAP, it was not possible for the government to provide land to all PAP. In March 2017, the High Court had pulled up district collectorate officials to place on record project-wise details of dams and affected persons, how many of the latter have been allotted alternate land or compensation, and how many are still waiting for the same.
