Nagpur cargo hub plan drives villagers desparate

Nagpur: Maharashtra's Vilasrao Deshmukh-government is asking the private sector not to go about acquiring land for projects if the farmers are opposed. Shivangaon is the hypocritical face of the state government itself. Jaideep Hardikar reports.
Last week, Shankar painfully succumbed to his burns. The following day, Damodar Kohale, 28, from the same 'basti' immolated himself to death. Kohale, also, was landless, who feared being thrown out of his plains in the face of a project.
Shivangaon - a village of 10,000 people within the Nagpur city limits, opposing its acquisition for the proposed multi-modal international cargo hub, tooth and nail - is steadily losing out hope and life. Alas, its land is more important for the government and its acquiring arms than the life that exists in this historic village.
Shivangaon is being acquired for the expansion of the international airport by the government at the behest of its subsidiary the Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC). The MADC is the nodal agency to implement MIHAN, the Multimodal International Hub and Airport at Nagpur. MADC would be a dominant partner in a soon-to-be-proposed joint venture company (JVC) with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) that owns the Nagpur airport today.
While the Vilasrao Deshmukh-government is asking the private sector not to go about acquiring land for projects if the farmers are opposed to it, Shivangaon brings to fore the hypocritical face of the state government and its undertaking. The government is offering below market-rate compensation to villagers for their land. Compensation being offered is between Rs.1 lakh and Rs.10 lakhs per acre. Market rates, say villagers, is Rs.1 crore per acre . This has left little choice for the farmers - either bow out or die.
12/10/08 IndiaTogether.org

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Categories: Airports Oct 2008, Cargo Oct 2008, New Oct 2008