Thane: Villagers seek protection ahead of land acquisition exercise

Thane: A group of villagers from Washala village here on Wednesday met the Thane collector, seeking protection from local money lenders in the wake of land acquisition for the Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg project.

The tribals from Shahpur taluka handed over a memorandum to collector Mahendra Kalyankar and said a majority of farmers in the village are ready to relinquish their land for the mega Nagpur-Mumbai expressway project.

But many of them are being allegedly threatened by money lenders over the ownership of their lands.

Villagers' representative Dnyaneshwar Nivruti Talpade said that despite villagers having land on their name, some money lenders are harassing them, claiming ownership over farmers' land, ahead of the start of acquisition process.

He urged to the district magistrate and the police to provide protection to them during the process of acquisition.