Maha: BJP MLA demands probe into illegal excavation, demands compensation for landowners

At least 80 to 90 acres land was dug up illegally during the construction of the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway in Maharashtras Aurangabad, a Bharatiya Janata Party BJP MLA has claimed.

At least 80 to 90 acres land was dug up illegally during the construction of the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway in Maharashtra's Aurangabad, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA has claimed. BJP MLA Haribhau Bagde has written to the administration regarding illegal digging carried out in his constituency Phulambri. ''The Deogiri Cooperative sugar factory has around 135 acres of land at Sawangi in Phulambri. While 20 acres had been acquired Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway project, illegal excavation was carried out on the remaining land, which has been left unleveled,'' Bagde told reporters on Saturday.

An inquiry should be conducted by the collector and administration into the illegal digging and land owners must be given compensation, he said.

''Illegal excavation was carried out in nearly 80-90 acres of land. The authorities should find out if the excavated soil was used for the expressway project or elsewhere,'' he added. A 54-km stretch of 701-km long Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway will pass through Aurangabad district. The first phase of the project from Nagpur to Shirdi was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this month.