‘Third Mumbai’ farmers foil land takeover bid, govt withdraws controversial notices

In a major victory for farmers in Uran, the Maharashtra government has withdrawn controversial notices that threatened to take over agricultural land left fallow for two consecutive years. The decision came after a massive protest march on Thursday to the Uran tehsil office, where villagers alleged a backdoor attempt to forcibly acquire their land under the guise of a central government scheme.

- G Mohiuddin Jeddy

The farmers, under the banner of the MMRDA KSC Navnagar Virodhi Shetkari Samiti Raigad, accused the state of misusing the Agri Stack initiative—a digital land record and agriculture database scheme—to dispossess them of their ancestral land for the ambitious Karnala Sai-Chirner New Town project, also dubbed “Third Mumbai”.