Mumbai: Members of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena(MNS) on Monday disrupted and stopped the survey work being carried out to acquire land for the bullet train project in Palghar district of Maharashtra. The development has come seven days after MNS Chief Raj Thackeray urged the land owners to retain their property and fight against land acquisitions for bullet train.
Around 20 members of the MNS gathered at the Shil Phata on the old Mumbai-Pune road and protested against the survey that was being carried out by National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited. They also damaged the instruments used to survey the land.
Aninash Jadhav of the MNS said “Maharashtra does not need bullet train, this project is being done for Gujarat. Our leader Raj Sahib has opposed this project and even the people of Maharashtra have opposed this project. So, today we have forced them to stop this survey. We will continue our protest against the project.”
Speaking at a rally in Vasai on May 1, Raj Thackeray had said, “Bullet train is only a means to bring Gujarat closer to Mumbai”. He alleged that even before the project could take off, rich Gujaratis from Gujarat had started buying properties alongside the bullet train route.
In the same rally, Raj Thackeray asked the farmers not to give away their land for the proposed bullet train and Mumbai-Vadodara Expressway.
Earlier also, Raj Thackeray had opposed the bullet train project after the Elphinstone bridge stampede in which 23 people lost their lives. Raj had said that the government needs to concentrate on the basic infrastructure of Railways rather than investing on the bullet train project. He had also said that he will not allow a single brick of the bullet train project to be laid in Maharashtra.
Farmers and Tribals from Palghar, Dahanu and Talasari have already opposed land acquisition for the bullet train project. There were several incidents in the first week of May when the locals have protested and stopped the survey for the project.
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