Maratha Ambuja Cement Project at Upparwahi is on the radar of union minister of state for chemical and fertilizers, Hansraj Ahir for alleged oppression of project affected people. Ahir on Friday directed district collector Deepak Mhaisekar to investigate into the irregularities done by the company in land acquisition around two decades ago and submit a report to state government. Ahir had summoned a joint meeting of administrative officers and representative of project affected farmers to resolve the issue. He claimed that Maratha Ambuja cement company had paid paltry compensation for acquiring hundreds of hectares of excess land from farmers in 12 villages of Korpana tehsil.
Ahir has been pursuing the issue since he was in the opposition. He had even summoned a Mahapanchayat of farmers from 70 villages few years ago demanding back unused land with various cement companies. According to him, Ambuja company alone had acquired 1,848 hectares from 12 different villages at meagre rates. However, company has only utilized only few hundred hectares for the project and more than 1,000 hectares is lying unused.