Purandar farmers demand clarity on land acquisition for airport

Locals skipped meetings called by district admin

- Dheeraj Bengrut

PUNE: Farmers from at least seven villages in Purandar taluka are demanding clarity on compensation and rehabilitation before the process to acquire their land for the proposed Purandar Airport begins.

So much so that a series of meetings organised by the Pune district administration over the past four to five days to initiate a dialogue with the farmers from villages where land will be acquired for the project saw zero participation.

Farmers from the villages of Khanwadi, Kumbharvalan, Vanpuri, Udachiwadi, Ekhatpur, Munjawadi and Pargaon boycotted the meetings organised by the district administration.

Officials including Dr Kalyan Pandhare, district land acquisition coordinator; Varsha Landge, sub-divisional officer; and others were present at these meetings. Invitations were sent out to the Sarpanchs, deputy Sarpanchs and other representatives of the respective villages but in most cases, no one attended.