Farmers from 44 villages opposing the proposed Mandal-Becharaji Special Investment Region (SIR), which also houses the site for an upcoming Maruti Suzuki plant, today submitted a memorandum to the CEO of SIR stating that their land should not be acquired for the project.
"We have received a memorandum from villagers, whose land fall under the proposed Mandal-Becharaji SIR, stating that their land should not be acquired for the project," CEO of SIR, Pankaj Patel, told PTI.
An activist associated with the protest, Sagar Rabari, who is also convener of Jamin Adhikar Andolan, said that Patel visited them today to make a presentation on SIR but villagers did not allow him to do so and he went back.
"Thereafter, we reached Gandhinagar and submitted a resolution to Patel, signed by gram panchayat, gram sabha, milk producers association and farmers' cooperative association stating that villagers don't want to part with their land," Rabari said.
The SIR covers Maruti car plant located at Hansalpur village on Viramgam-Becharaji highway and the state wants to develop the region as an auto and knowledge hub.
In addition to the resolution expressing their strong displeasure in parting with the land for SIR, landholders of the villages have also submitted respective affidavits of their land-holdings.
Landless labourers have also submitted a memorandum stating that the grazing land and the wasteland, which the state government has notified as SIR, is their only source of livelihood.
Last Saturday, RSS-affiliated farmers' union Bharatiya Kisan Sangh had given support to the villagers' stir by passing a resolution against the Gujarat government's move to develop Mandal-Becharaji Special Investment Region.
