Hundreds of adviasis, owing allegiance to three tribal organisations in neighbouring Palghar district, on Thursday staged black flag demonstration at Boisar in protest against the bullet train project, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his counterpart from Japan Shinzo Abe laid the foundation stone for the ambitious Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet train project at Sabarmati in Gujarat.
Boisar, an industrial township in Palghar district, is one of the scheduled halting stations of the bullet train, after Bandra-Kurla Complex and Virar stations.
At the protest organised jointly by Bhoomi Sena, Shetkari Sangarsha Samiti and Advasi Ekta Parishad in front of the Boisar Railway station, the tribals waved black flags and raised slogans against the much-discussed bullet train project.
Contending that the BJP-led NDA Government had gone ahead with the project without taking the farmers into consideration, Bhoomi Sena president Kaluram Dodade alleged that the Prime Minister, while pushing his pet project, had violated the Panchayat Extensions to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act,1996.
“The affected people are mostly tribals and small farmers in Palghar. If their lands are acquired for the project, the advisis and affected farmers will be ruined. The Centre is pushing the project without taking local tribals and small farms into confidence,” Dodade alleged.
The protesters submitted a memorandum to the Station Master of Boisar who will forward their petition to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal.
Amid tight security arrangements, the protest passed off peacefully. “"It was a symbolic protest and there was no law and order situation,” Palghar district police superintendent Majunath Shinge said.