Navi Mumbai Project Affected People to hit road on June 24 to seek naming NMIA after D B Patil

Project Affected People (PAP) of 27 villages of Navi Mumbai under the banner of the All-Party Action Committee (APNC) held a meeting on Wednesday and decided to hit the road on June 24 to put pressure on the state government to name the proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) after late socialist D B Patil. June 24 is the death anniversary of the late socialist Patil.

Members of the All-Party Action Committee (APAC) decided to continue their protest against the state government for not naming the upcoming airport after Patil. They claimed that it was a long pending demand and the state government is ignoring it.

More than one lakh farmers are expected to join the protest from Thane, Palghar, Raigad, and Mumbai. A plan of forming a human chain is underway. However, a decision has not been taken yet.

For the last two years, villagers backed MLA Prashant Thakur, and former MP Ramseth Thakur staged a number of protests. They had also observed a black day on March 17, 2020, the establishment day of the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) and later threatened that over one lakh villagers would hit the road on June 24.

Now, Airoli MLA Ganesh has also joined in the demand and he said that the city belongs to villagers and they would get the right.

Last year, around 20,000 villagers had staged protests in Belapur. The police had even registered FIR against the organizer including MLA Prashant Thakur. Even in January 2022, more than 10,000 villagers from 27 villages assembled at the airport site near Dapoli village in Panvel amidst tight police security for a symbolic work-stopping agitation.

For the last two years, PAPs of Navi Mumbai under the banner of the All-Party Action Committee (APAC) have been protesting against the state government and CIDCO for not giving the name of NMIA after Patil, a PAPs leader.