Fadnavis flays delayin Mihan rehabilitation

Fadnavis flays delayin Mihan rehabilitation

Nagpur South-West MLA Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday charged that the state government was completely apathetic towards rehabilitation of Twitter Facebook Share Email Print Save Comment project affected peoples (PAPs) of Mihan. He further charged the government with making only hollow promises regarding Mihan and said as long as it did not issue a resolution (GR) for rehabilitation of PAPs, the ambitious project will remain on paper.

Fadnavis told reporters that last year during the winter session chief minister Ashok Chavan had declared a compensation package for PAPs living in Bhamti and Jaitala areas. That included 12.5% transfer of development rights (TDR), ex-gratia payment or providing equivalent amount of land inside the city. Chavan had also declared that a fast track court would be set up to settle disputes regarding compensation.

The MLA rued that all these promises had remained on paper. This had created widespread discontent among the persons whose land is to be acquired for Mihan, he said. He said that Mihan comprised two parts. The first was the special economic zone (SEZ) while the second was international cargo terminal. The terminal was the soul of the project and industries would be attracted to SEZ due to the cargo terminal.

Slamming the government, Fadnavis said that the land for the SEZ had been acquired and the affected persons rehabilitated. The government had also spent Rs 700 crore in providing infrastructure in the SEZ. However, in case of the cargo terminal there were a lot of hurdles in way of land acquisition and nobody knows when it would be completed, he added.

After the residents of Shivangaon launched an agitation for getting proper compensation and the issue was raised in the winter session of 2008, the government announced a package in state assembly but strangely no GR was issued giving effect to the package. Until the GR was issued, work on cargo terminal could not begin, Fadnavis pointed out.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) had started measuring the Shivangaon land even though no GR had been issued. The villagers had also realized that unless they twisted the government's arm, they would not get anything. Hence, they unanimously decided that they would not allow MIDC to measure the land unless they got their dues. The villagers' fate now hangs in balance. Fadnavis appealed to the CM to immediately issue the required GR.