Farmers from 12 districts to hold protest against Shaktipeeth Expressway on July 1
On Thursday, the Dharashiv district collectorate decided to suspend the survey for land acquisition after farmer leader Raju Shetti held a protest with affected farmers. He also met the district collector Keerthi Pujar and asked him not to hold the survey against the will of the farmers.
Despite resistance from the agrarian community, the state government approved over ₹ 20,878 crore for completing the land acquisition process of the 802-km greenfield project that will connect Nagpur to Goa via Sindhudurg. The project requires 8,615 hectares of land, of which 8,141 hectares of land need to be acquired from private individuals, most of whom are farmers.
'We have decided to intensify our opposition to the project after the government decided to take the project forward at any cost. On July 1, all the farmers who will be losing their cultivated land will gather in their respective districts and oppose the project,' announced Satej Patil, Congress leader who has been opposing the project from the start. Patil is from Kolhapur, one of the 12 districts through which the expressway is expected to pass.
Shetti alleged that the project would not just render farmers landless but was also financially unfeasible. 'The 700-km Pune-Bengaluru Expressway, which is also eight lanes, cost ₹ 50,000 crore, while the cost of the six-lane Shaktipeeth is pegged at ₹ 86,300 crore,' he said. 'This indicates corruption.'
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