RAIGAD: It is evident right from the start of our conversation that Chandri Shripad Ubhare is not the one to shy away from a fight. She responds with authority to every question before it is even completed and looks furious at the mention of the possibility of her land in Dhakne village in Raigad district, about 140 km from Mumbai, being acquired for the Dighi Port Industrial Area that is part of the proposed Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC).“You can take us, but not our land. If they try to take it forcibly, the women will be the first to stand in their way and we will throw stones at them,” says the 60-year-old who grows paddy on her 0.25-acre land with her husband.Ubhare does not care much for industrial development and jobs in the area, which is the government’s pitch to the villagers. “we don’t want anything. just let us do farming. we are happy with whatever little we earn. you can take the project elsewhere,” she notes. it is people like her that stand in the way of maharashtra industrial development corporation (midc), the nodal agency for dmic in the state, acquiring the 5,700 hectares (1 hectare equals 2.47 acres) in 24 villages, with over 50,000 people, in mangaon and roha talukas, fertile regions where paddy is the main crop, in phase i of the project.raigad district collector sumant bhange says another 6,000 hectares will be acquired in phase ii. the original plan was to acquire 25,300 hectares in 78 villages, which has been scaled down thanks to the opposition to the project. the dighi port is about 50 km from mangaon and 65 km from roha.DMIC is an ambitious $90-billion project to build 24 industrial cities on both sides of a 1,483-km Dedicated Freight Corridor between Delhi and Mumbai by 2040. It covers six states — Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Seven cities, including the Dighi Port Industrial Area, are expected to be developed as part of Phase I, the deadline for which is 2019.Maharashtra has one other industrial city, near Aurangabad, in Phase I. The central government’s financial assistance for each city in Phase I is reportedly Rs 2,500-3,000 crore. DMICDC, the development corporation responsible for carrying out the project, aims to double the employment potential of each industrial city within seven years of its completion and treble its industrial output within nine years. The government, through its various arms, owns 74% of DMICDC and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation the rest.It is not only marginal farmers like Ubhare who are against the Dighi Port project, but even farmers like Anandrao Jadhav, whose extended family owns about 150 acres and who personally owns about 30 acres. “We gave our land for highways, canals and railway tracks. We did not have a problem with that but we are not going to give up our land for this project,” says the 83-yearold resident of Dharanchiwadi village, off National Highway 17, which connects Mumbai and Goa.His son Sanjay says though people voted for change in the 2014 general election, the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, of the United Progressive Alliance government had farmers’ interest in mind, unlike the ordinance introduced by the Narendra Modi dispensation late last year.While the 2013 Act called for social impact assessment studies and consent of at least 70% of the people affected by public private partnership (PPP) projects and 80% by private entities, the ordinance did away with those if the land is acquired for any of the following purposes: defence, rural infrastructure including electrification, housing for the poor, industrial corridors where land is acquired within one kilometre of designated railway line or roads, and PPP infrastructure projects where the ownership of the land remains with the government.Ulka Mahajan, convenor of Sarvahara Jan Andolan, a movement leading the opposition to the Dighi Port project, says the aforementioned list of projects is quite expansive. “Moreover, no amount of compensation is enough. Land is not just a commodity, it provides for every generation,” she adds. The government is offering Rs 18.4 lakh per acre if a farmer is parting with his land completely for the Dighi Port project, and Rs 13 lakh if he wants to retain 15% of the developed land. Mahajan says a one-time compensation is not of much use to the farmer since the money does not last him beyond a few years.She adds that the government should lease the land instead of buying it, giving landowners long-term financial security. Talleen Kumar, chief executive officer of DMICDC, in an emailed response to ET Magazine’s questions, just said MIDC is responsible for making land available for the project. Questions sent to Bhushan Gagrani, CEO of MIDC, remained unanswered.Bhange says the government has got owners’ consent for about 2,200 hectares, while Mahajan says the documents she has accessed put the number at about 1,150 hectares. “Most of the people who have agreed are those who bought the land from farmers after the project was announced. Not even 2% of the locals have given their consent,” says Mahajan. To that, Bhange says the government can only seek the consent of landowners whether or not they are locals.Dighi Port Industrial AreaOne of the seven industrial cities to be developed in Phase 1 of the $90-billion Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), this project was originally planned on 25,300 hectares in 78 villages in Raigad district. The township will have three major industrial clusters — engineering, heavy industries and food processing. DMIC covers six states and has 24 nodes, which fall within 150 km of the Dedicated Freight Corridor between Delhi and Mumbai. Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) is acquiring land for the project in the state, which has another industrial city planned near Aurangabad in the first phase.Since 2012, locals have protested against it, forcing the government to first consider scrapping it and then scaling down the land to be acquired to around 5,700 hectares in Phase I, with a similar area of land to be acquired in Phase II. Locals say about 1,900 hectares acquired by MIDC for other projects in the region remains unutilised.Rs 18.4 lakh per acre if the owner sells the entire land and Rs 13 lakh per acre if he wants to hold 15% of the developed land.According to the Raigad district collector, owners of about 2,200 hectares of land have given their consent to the project, while Sarvahara Jan Andolan, a movement leading the agitation against the project, pegs the number at 1,154 hectares.Mahajan says out of the land MIDC has acquired for other projects, 695 hectares has been allotted for industries but not been utilized while 1,246 hectares have not been allotted at all. Bhange refutes that and says there is no such unutilised land and Kumar says DMICDC is not aware of any utilized land in the region.The villagers, who have participated in protest marches against the project, can count on support from leaders of the Shiv Sena, part of the ruling coalition in both Maharashtra and the Centre. The party has been vocal in its criticism of the ordinance.Anant Geete, a Shiv Sena minister in the Modi cabinet, is the MP from Raigad. The locals can also take heart from the fact a Reliance Industries-promoted special economic zone in Raigad was scrapped in 2011 after only 13% of the requisite land was acquired. Bhange says the government will not forcibly acquire anyone’s land. But, farmer Jadhav is sceptical: “Now they are saying they will not take our land without our consent, but we don’t know what will happen later.”