Vasai: Villagers of Palghar district are frustrated at the spate of mega infrastructure projects that are being carried out in this area, like the Wadhavan Port, Mumbai Vadodara Expressway, Virar Alibaug Metro, Nhava Sheva-New Delhi Freight Corridor, Bullet Train, and many others.
They are fuming at a system that cares little for their existence. Though they say that they won’t leave till they die, yet they know they are fighting a losing battle against the power and might of the government and the corporate world.
With 1,008 villages, 3,818 sub-villages as well as 477 gram panchayats, a literacy rate of 67 per cent, this coastal area, nestled in the foothills of the Sahyadri range, is barely 110 km from Mantralaya, with the National Highway and Western Railway cutting through the district.
But none of this proximity to the country’s financial capital has helped. For decades, the district has faced acute water shortages due to poor rainfall and improper water conservation and management system, malnutrition, unemployment and a shortage of basic infrastructure.
But at the same time this district is the focus for many central and state governments mega projects which are strategically important but will be of no direct use to the local population. For example, the proposed bullet train project will pass through the hearts of many hamlets. If the project sees the light of day, scores of entire hamlets will vanish.
Villagers are openly expressing their dismay at this project that will take away their land and leave them with few opportunities, and the prospect of them having to leave their ancestral land and move to other part of the state. Generations have lived here, and not once in several decades, have they ever been to the market for groceries.
They have fruit orchards, rice fields and cattle, and now the government is asking them to leave everything and make way for the project. How can you call this as development?, they ask. Villagers do not want such development, but are demanding that government should focus on genuine socio-economic development.
They allege that while the region is reeling under malnutrition, unemployment and water shortage, the government is busy with the bullet train project. The train is only for the business community and which will not serve the tribal population, but actually displace them for the convenience of a handful of rich people.
Palghar has very few employment opportunities forcing vulnerable sections to migrate to other areas. Shoddy roads and irregular electric supply have been a reality since ages. Most areas have seen no new roads, while work on some is incomplete.
Electricity lines have not been connected at places even though poles have been installed since many years. Hospitals and primary health centres are ill-equipped with no proper staffing. By the time patients are taken to Gujarat or Mumbai, their condition worsens.
A lot of the time, sick persons referred to big hospitals in cities do not come back alive. Villagers are demanding that government should address these problems first. They are saying that if the government wants to do something for them, it must fix their ground-level problems, such as drinking water, malnutrition, education, electricity network, poor quality of roads, and unemployment.