The Times of India, Jan 9 2016, Aurangabad: The state government has finally denotified prime land located in the Shendra five-star industrial area, paving the way for its return to farmers. The farmers will get back 33.45 hectares of the 35-hectare land.

 

Social activist and Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar, along with hundreds of farmers, had taken possession of the land on July 23, 2013 and began ploughing it.

 

Patkar had demanded that the special investigation team (SIT) probe every land acquisition in the city. She termed the acquisition of the Shendra land by a private pharma major as “state and corporate terrorism”.

The land, which was acquired under the Special Economic Zone (SEZ), has remained a bone of contention since 2012 between the farmers, the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and the private pharma major which had proposed to develop the land.

 

The farmers had claimed that the land had been acquired fraudulently and handed over to the pharma company. Days before the land could be occupied, the farmers began filing civil suits in the district court.