Is Gujarat's Hansalpur going the Singur way?

Locals opposed to Maruti Suzuki India proposed car manufacturing plant at Hansalpur village are likely to send a notice to the company asking it to stop construction at the site, an activist associated with the protest said.

“We have decided to send a notice to MSI asking them to halt construction at the proposed site as the matter regarding the land is sub-judice,” Jamin Adhikar Andolan convener Sagar Rabari told PTI here today.

Rabari said it is feared that a confrontation was likely between the villagers and the company if it continued with construction work at the site.

MSI has already started building a boundary wall at the proposed site. It claims it has purchased and received possession of the land for the Hansalpur plant.

“Villagers claim they have the right to the land purchased by Maruti from the State Government, as it was theirs earlier.

“However, the Gujarat government claims that the land sold to MSI was wasteland,” Rabari said.

The villagers are also opposed to Gujarat government’s plan to convert the area around the MSI plant into a Special Investment Region.

On May 25, villagers had organised a rally condemning the state government’s plan to convert fertile, cultivable land into an SIR.

As part of its industrial policy, the State Government has notified the Mandal — Becharaji SIR to be developed as an “auto and knowledge hub”. The SIR also covers MSI’s car plant at Hansalpur village, located on the Viramgam — Becharaji highway.

Villagers, under the banner of the Jamin Adhikar Andolan, Azad Vikas Sangathan, Seva Sahkari Mandal and Dudh Utapadan Mandal will submit a memorandum on Friday to SIR’s Chief Executive Officer Pankaj Patel.

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