After a group of project-affected people (PAPs) of the Navi Mumbai airport staged a rasta roko on Tuesday and 70 of them were briefly detained, CIDCO on Wednesday promised them a joint meeting with the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to resolve their issues.
The PAPs had a held a 38-day protest earlier, which was called off only after a meeting with Mr. Thackeray and Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde, who promised them a joint meeting with CIDCO officials.
“We were told no work would be done till the meeting but on Tuesday they took up work at Waghivali village and the angered villagers staged a rasta roko,” Umesh Khandekar, a resident of the village, said.
Contractors assigned by CIDCO had taken up electric line work in the village. “Waghivali comes outside the core area. It won’t have the airport but the electric wires that will provide power supply have to go through the village,” a CIDCO officer said, adding that the PAPs were detained by the police on bandobast duty.
“Close to 70 PAPs were detained and left after we held a meeting with them. We made them understand to not take law in their hands,” senior police inspector Tanvir Shaikh from NRI coastal police station said.
Meanwhile, Ramchandra Mhatre, who represents Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha from Raigad and led the protest, said, “The detention happens on the orders of contractors for whom we are a problem since we are raising our voice. We met CIDCO MD Lokesh Chandra and he has promised that he will soon have a joint meeting with us and CM and get the issues solved.”
Among the main demands of the PAPs are compensation to fishermen who would lose their livelihood to the project, increase in construction aid from ₹1,500 to ₹2,500 per sq.ft. and reconsidering the decision of ‘zero eligibility’ of PAPs for resettlement.