Union agriculture minister and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday announced that the project-affected people of the proposed Navi Mumbai international airport will now get four times the compensation that had been offered to them.
Pawar made the comments in Navi Mumbai where he inaugurated a Rs.38.84 crore Wonders Park, and also launched an e-library of the Navi Mumbai civic body. In his address, Pawar said, “The land acquisition bill has been approved by the Union cabinet. It will now go to the Lok Sabha. The bill will ensure that land owners will now get four times the compensation that they have been getting so far. Land is a very important asset of an individual, and if it goes, the future generations are left with nothing. The increased compensation will help take care of them.”

He explained, “In case of Navi Mumbai, where land for the airport has been acquired, but the payment has not been made, or in cases where land is yet to be acquired, if Rs.4 crore was going to be paid as compensation, that figure will now be Rs.16 crore.”

Pawar said, “The bill also has a provision that in cases where a private entity wants to acquire land, 80% of the land owners should give their consent.”

Pawar also defended minister of state Fauzia Khan’s pictures with animal carcasses in South Africa saying the issue does not merit much importance and that he, too, had posed for such pictures. “Every tourist to certain areas in South Africa takes such pictures.”