District collector Vikas Deshmukh made it clear on Friday that the land for the proposed airport at Khed would be acquired only after hearing the grievances of the local farmers. He said that a meeting of the local farmers would be held by the divisional commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh soon and all the doubts and queries by the farmers would be clarified in this meeting.
Speaking to mediapersons Deshmukh said that some land from the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) promoted by Bharat Forge would be used for the airport. Some private land would also be acquired, he said. Around 750 hectares of land from the
SEZ would be utilised for airport project.
He informed that there were doubts about change of purpose, but as per the Supreme Court judgement on this issue, the SEZ or any other land acquired for such purpose can be utilised for the project of larger public interest.
He informed that private land admeasuring around 425 hectares would be acquired for the proposed airport. The Maharashtra Airport Development Authority (MADC) was preparing maps for this, he said, adding that finer nuances about the land to be acquired have to be decided and MADC has just completed the feasibility aspect of the same.
Deshmukh made it clear that as far as the airport was concerned two sites were proposed, which were rejected by the MADC. This is the third site and that is the reason why there are doubts in the minds of the local villagers. The farmers who had given their land for the SEZ were duly compensated and even the tribals were provided with new houses as per the assurance during the land acquisition.
Anti-Khed SEZ Airport and Anti-Khed Developers Limited Save Farmers Action Committee has been protesting against giving the special economic zone (SEZ) land for the airport project. As many as 950 farmers from Nimgaon, Davadi, Kanersar, Gosasi and Kendur villages of Khed and Shirur talukas have given their land for SEZ.
The committee has claimed that out of the 1,207 hectares acquired for SEZ, it was decided to return 15 per cent land to farmers. District collector Deshmukh however made it clear that unless all the doubts were cleared for the farmers, land would not be acquired and as far as farmers who have given land for SEZ all the doubts raised by them would be cleared at the meeting.
Source : dnaindia.com