Farmers in Maharashtra are being the victim of the government’s Special Economic Policy (SEZ) and they are fighting against this land-grabbing scheme or to get better compensation of their lands.

On the other hand, government’s authorities are claiming that SEZs are meant only for unused land and that deserve low compensation for these kinds of lands.

By rejecting this Government’s claim, the farmers of Raigad are going hi-tech way to shoe the government the real story.

Before four months, the Pen Taluka’s farmers in Raigad district were told that the government would acquire their land to build the 25,000-acre Maha Mumbai Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

Arun Shivkar, a SEZ Hatao Virodh Samiti activist, logged on to Google Earth and showed the state government authorities that the land is actually fertile enough and farmers deserve better compensation if the government will acquire the land.

Earlier, authorities had claimed that only a small portion of the land is fertile and planning to grant lower compensation for the farmers.

Now, the authority people are in trouble as the Google Earth’s satellite pictures are clearly showing the existing crop areas in the land. This has helped farmers back their claims for higher compensation.

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