MUMBAI: Four policemen were injured on Thursday when farmers protesting against land acquisition for an airport at Nevali in Thane district resorted to stone-pelting.
Farmers from villages in the Nevali-Bhal-Dawalpada area in Ambarnath taluka in Thane district blocked the Kalyan-Haji Malang Gad road and turned violent when police intervened.
Deputy police commissioner Sunil Patil, a constable and two other policemen were injured in the stone-pelting. A police vehicle was torched while the agitators threw burning tyres. Stones were also pelted at the police near Dawalpada village on Dombiwali-Badlapur road, sources said.
Thane commissioner of police Paramjit Singh said riot control squads have been deployed. Plastic bullets were fired at the protesters to disperse them, PTI reported.
According to PTI, the aggrieved farmers had earlier this month approached the Bombay High Court with a bunch of petitions challenging the acquisition of over 1,600 acres by the Ministry of Defence for an airport requisitioned during World War II.
Local sources said naval staff started fencing off the field and prevented farmers from entering.
According to the petitions, the land was requisitioned by the government through an order passed by the then Thane collector in February 1943, under the Defence of India Act. The petitions have challenged the validity of the requisition order, PTI reported.