The notification of merging 53 villages along with the four municipal councils into one civic body known as the Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation has not gone down well with the villagers.
The villagers have resisted the move. The state had issued a notification on July 3, 2009 that the municipal councils of Nallasopara, Virar, Navghar-Manickpur and Vasai along with 53 adjoining villages would be merged to create the new municipal corporation of Vasai-Virar.
Forty-nine of the 53 village panchayats that have unanimously objected to the merger, have now launched an agitation for their villages to be left alone under the banner of ‘gaon vachva jan andolan’ (people’s agitation to save village). Regional leaders of Vasai-Virar cutting across all party lines have joined the campaign to save the villages, last remaining green belts of the Vasai, from urbanisation that is eminent after being merged into the municipal corporation.
On September 21, 2006, in a gram sabha convened by the gram pachayats, the villagers had unanimously decided that they would not merge with the municipal corporation. Barring three villages, rest of the 49 villages have taken a decision against the merger. “The state government overruled the decisions of the gram sabha which is against the spirit of the 74th Amendment of Article 243 of the Indian Constitution,” said Shiv Sena leader, Vivek Pandit.
He added that the villages objected to the merger with the new municipal corporation, as they did not see any benefits in it. “The dwellings in the villages are self-contained farm houses that do not need anything what an urban local body could provide. Moreover, it would be disadvantageous to the village as their ancestral land holdings would be taken over providing civic amenities for which there is no space left in the urban areas,” said Pandit. During the creation of new civic bodies in Thane, in the past it was seen that the merged villages were often used for amenities, which the city would not prefer it in its own backyard such as garbage dumping grounds.
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