The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) on Wednesday declared its opposition to the Metro car shed project. The VBA said it will oppose attempts to build the car shed if its members are elected in the State polls.
The VBA said the forest land belongs not to the government but to tribals. Party spokesperson Siddharth Mokle said, “The BJP and the Shiv Sena have a common agenda of grabbing land and opening it up for builders and developers. The BJP is executing the plan and the Shiv Sena is trying to gain sympathy by crying over it.”
The party attacked Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis over his remark that Aarey is not forest land. Dr. A.D. Sawant, VBA secretary for Raigad region and president of the Society for Clean Environment, said, “If the government cannot accept a land with lakhs of trees, birds, leopards, tigers and other animals and insects as a forest, then we don’t know what a forest is. Out of every eight deaths, one is caused due to air pollution. The destruction of Aarey will lead to more pollution. There are other sites for building the car shed like Bandra Kurla Complex, Mahalaxmi race course, Colaba, Bhandup and Vikhroli, but the government is being adamant as it wants to grab Aarey land. Today they are taking 28 hectares, tomorrow they will take more.”
Activist Nicholas Almeida said grabbing the land of people living in Aarey is an act of atrocity. He said, “Those who are hungry for land don’t care about the environment or citizens. We will protest against this decision on a large scale and won’t let the government dominate us.”
Rajaram Patil, VBA secretary for Mumbai region, said, “We passed this resolution only on Tuesday. We will henceforth actively participate in all protests.”
