Parvati Narhari Patil (75) from Vashi village was married off when she was in Class VII. But within a year she was left to fend for herself by her husband. Said her 29-year-old nephew Suhas Madvi, “Since then she has been surviving by tilling a half acre land given to her by my father. What will hundreds like her do once their land is taken away? Our homes are located in the fields itself, which means they too will be uprooted even though the company claims otherwise.”

According to Vaishali Patil, a Pen-based social worker, over the last three years only 13 per centof the farmers have sold their land for the proposed SEZ. “Twenty five years ago, the state Government spent Rs 394 crore on constructing the Hetawane dam. At a time when its benefits have just started reaching the farmers, the Government wants to gift away the fertile land and the dam water to Reliance,” said Patil.

Former High Court judge Justice B G Kolse Patil said, “RIL has spent hundreds of crores on purchasing each acre of land for the Bandra Kurla Complex. Here they are paying a measly Rs 10 lakh per acre for such fertile land. They know tomorrow this land will be prime real estate after the construction of the Sewri-Nhava Sheva sea link.”