Villagers protest SUDA land move

In a statement, the Mandal president Bipin Desai said the policy of reservation of land by urban development bodies was serving personal interests of corrupt people at the farmers’ cost. He compared the farmers’ condition to animals ready to be slaughtered, and said the procedures of asking villagers, whose land is being acquired, to send in objections was being reduced to a farce as none of the objections was ever heeded to.

Listing other problems villagers were facing because of the reservation, Desai said the urban development authorities coming up with a development map every decade and reserving more land for development if necessary was being used to snatch away the villagers’ legitimate possession.

The villagers are now against the proposed solid and sewerage disposal plant at Khojod on the outskirts of the city, stating that carcasses, decomposing organic matter, industrial waste and other dirt deposited there by the Surat Municipal Corporation would pose a great danger to their lives.

SUDA chief executive J B Vora told Express Newsline that the proposed plant was a public interest project on the government land. “The land is saline as it is close to the sea coast and not fit for agriculture. It has been earmarked for the purpose as the land belongs to the government”, he said.

The proposal was first made in 1980. It was sanctioned in 1986 and reviewed in 1996. Although the work has not begun yet, the SMC has made its intention clear and mentioned the project as a major step in the action plan drawn after the recent flood.

Officials, however, said that in view of the villagers’ fear of a threat to health, a lot of caution needed to be taken in the implementation of the project. An official connected with the project said: “With new technologies available, most of the waste can be converted into fertilizers and the foul smell and other hazardous effects can be minimised,” he said, adding solid waste management in the city was necessary.