The project-affected villagers of Navi Mumbai Airport Influence Notified Area (NAINA) decided to intensify their agitation by hitting the streets seeking withdrawal of the scheme. Few villagers tried to self-immolate themselves but the attempt was foiled after the police intervened. Post the episode, a delegation of villagers will now go to Nagpur and meet public MLAs and the opposition leader to cancel the NAINA project. Under the banner of NAINA Prakalp Badhit Shetkari Utkarsh Samiti, a total of six villagers from Shivkar, Plasape, Chindhran, Shirvali and Turmale are sitting on indefinite fast from Wednesday. On the sixth day, they had planned to self-immolate as they did not get a concrete response from CIDCO.
Nitin Thackery, the senior police inspector from the Panvel City Police station convinced them to drop their plan as CIDCO is ready to discuss. Meanwhile, the Panvel Vishal Tehsildar visited the Turmale village along Mumbai-Goa highway with a proposal from CIDCO. As per the proposal, since all the ministers and officials are in Nagpur for winter session, they will hold a meeting after December 11, 2023 20 when the session ends.However, villagers who are demanding to cancel the NAINA scheme and allow them to develop their land under the Unified Development Control and Promotion Regulation (UNDCPR) rejected the proposal and demanded to make an announcement in the ongoing assembly session. Anil Dhavle, a project-affected person (PAP) said that villagers are against NAINA as it will snatch their land and they will not get anything out of it. “For last five to six years, there have been protests and there is no concrete result. Now, this is a do or die for us. Either NAINA will happen or we will win,” said Dhavle.
Over five women from NAINA affected villages also blocked the Mumbai-Goa high near Turmale village for around 10 minutes. Earlier, they had planned to block the road till they got a decision. However, after the police convinced them, they agreed for a 10-minute road blocked protest. Earlier, a 23-day long chain protest by 23 villages that fall under NAINA was carried out. Over 2000 villagers in cars and motorbikes took out a protest march from Panvel to CIDCO Bhawan in Belapur against NAINA. They alleged that the state government did not pay heed to their chain protest wherein all 23 villages were closed for a day from February 12 to march 1, 2023. Each village stopped all work for a day and staged a protest against the project. The protest march received support from Maha Vikas Aghadi and other political parties including the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP).Advocate Suresh Thakur, Chairman of All Officers and Members Navi Mumbai 95 Villages NAINA and Other Project Affected Committee said that they said that villagers have cleared that they would not require NAINA as this will snatch their lonely source of income which is agriculture.
NAINA is a participatory land pooling scheme where villagers will get 40 percent of the developed land of the total land they will surrender to develop NAINA city in the Raigad district. At present, CIDCO is executing a pilot project, consisting of 23 villages in the Raigad district. According to villagers, the impact assessment report says that around 42% of land in NAINA is multi-crop land. How will the villagers survive if they surrender these lands and get only 40% of the development land? Even villagers have to pay different charges for development.”Dhavle said that a delegation consisting of former MLC Balaram Patil, Advocate Suresh Thakur and architect Atul Mhatre will go to Nagpur on Tuesday to discuss the matter with public representatives and the leader of opposition. “If NAINA scheme is not canceled, we will stop the operation of JNPT. It means the transport of essential commodities will stop,” said Dhavle. He added that they have just postponed the plan to self-immolate. “The fast protest will continue till we get a solution,” said Dhavle.