Airport PAP warn of protest if they aren’t rehabilitated

Burning issue: Villagers had stalled work at the airport site in January after blasting work triggered a landslide.

Burning issue: Villagers had stalled work at the airport site in January after blasting work triggered a landslide.  

CIDCO says only 40 families are eligible, rest were resettled as per 2013 survey

Residents of Siddharth Nagar, project-affected people (PAP) of the proposed Navi Mumbai Airport, have warned CIDCO of an agitation if all of the families are not rehabilitated.

The residents want a nine-acre plot where the whole village can be rehabilitated, along with a school, hospital, temple and Buddha Vihar. “There are around 150 families in Siddharth Nagar and only 40 have received letters for rehabilitation. We have given CIDCO time till the monsoon. If it doesn’t rehabilitate the whole village, we will protest,” said Prakash Jadhav, a resident.

The residents have also claimed that the continuous blasting work has affected their lives. “We have to bear all this and yet our demands are not being met. This time, we will hold an indefinite protest,” Mr. Jadhav said.

CIDCO’s say

According to CIDCO, nine villages were surveyed in 2013 to identify households to be rehabilitated. At the time, Siddharth Nagar was left out. After verifying with Google satellite images, CIDCO found the village had only 40 houses in 2013.

“Around 40 families are eligible for rehabilitation, and we have sent letters to them. Some of the families wanted to live nearby, so they wished to go for amalgamation and get a bigger plot. We had asked them to send us an application till April 19, failing which we will go ahead with lottery system. Till now, we have received no application from Siddharth Nagar. Instead, others who are not eligible for rehabilitation have approached us to get rehabilitated,” an officer from the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Department said.

CIDCO has told the ineligible families that if they find anyone who was not living in the village in 2013 and yet is being rehabilitated, they can complain to CIDCO.

“The people who are not eligible are being aggressive as some of them purchased the land after 2013, believing claims made by agents that they wiould get rehabilitated and compensated by us,” a CIDCO officer said.