Mumbai: Thousands of farmers laid siege to the busy Mumbai-Agra Highway at Shahapur to protest against land acquisition for proposed Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi corridor known as Mumbai-Nagpur super expressway on Wednesday afternoon.
About 1,000 persons including MP Raju Shetti were arrested and released, organisers said. Samruddhi Mahamarga Shetkari Sangharsh Samiti (SMSSS), organised the road blockade, which represents affected farmers from 10 districts between Thane and Nagpur.
SMSSS Nashik convenor comrade Raju Desale said that the proposed expressway would require 20,582 hectares land in Maharashtra. “This proposed route goes through extreme fertile farmland and farmers will be getting very low returns. We have not calculated the loss of livelihood yet,” he said. Farmer Siddharth Ashok Sable from Talegaon-Budruk said he will become landless as the proposed project will take up his 3.5 acres farm. “I will be rendered landless and jobless,” he said.
Out of the 20,000 hectares required for the construction of expressway, between Bhiwandi and Nagpur around 84 per cent of the land is agricultural land, 13 per cent fallow land and 1.92 per cent forest land. The corridor will pass through 350 villages from 27 talukas where non-cultivable landowners will get developed plot of 25 per cent of the area given up by them. For those having irrigated or cultivable land, it will be 30 per cent of the land given up.
