After heavy rain flooded their homes, the residents of Dungi village were shifted to a school recently constructed by CIDCO at Karanjade village in Chinchpada on Tuesday.
The village located outside the core area of the Navi Mumbai airport site was flooded for the first time last monsoon owing to Ulwe river diversion work for the project. CIDCO had then claimed that flooding would cease in the area once the diversion work was done. However, this year too, the village was swamped. Adesh Naik, a resident of the village, said, “This year, CIDCO installed pumps to drain the water, yet the situation is bad. Incessant rain over the past three days has flooded the homes of the 127 families in the village.”
Last month, CIDCO had agreed to rehabilitate the villagers and provide rent for 18 months and other incentives it had offered to the residents of the 10 villages located in the project site’s core area. The district collector then surveyed the house of each resident of the village and the rent to be allotted to the villagers.
On Monday, Panvel tehsildar Amit Sanap and Sena MLA Manohar Bhoir visited the flooded village and promised to shift the villagers to a safe location. However, the villagers told Mr. Sanap that they would shift only after receiving the promised rent for 18 months. They also demanded to see the place where they would be resettled. After Mr. Sanap communicated the demands to CIDCO, its officials visited the village on Tuesday and promised to release ₹50,000 as rent for four months and transportation cost for the villagers.
Mr. Naik said, “CIDCO has promised to immediately issue cheques to us. We will receive rent for four months and ₹10,000 as transportation fees. The officials have sent the proposal to release the remaining rent amount to higher authorities. If CIDCO had taken this step earlier, we would have shifted long back and not faced this problem of flooding at all.”
Mr. Sanap said the villagers have been shifted to the school in Karanjade village in Panvel taluka as the area does not get flooded. He said, “We have also arranged food for them. This is all we can do as CIDCO is responsible for looking after their resettlement and rehabilitation.”
