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The state government’s decision comes weeks after thousands of protestors marched to the CIDCO headquarters in Belapur to press their demand to name the upcoming airport after the local hero.
On June 10, the state government had also announced that the airport will be named after Thackeray which had led to intensified protests on June 24. (File)
The Maharashtra cabinet on Saturday cleared a proposal to name the upcoming Navi Mumbai international airport after late D B Patil, who had led several farmers and landowners protests in Panvel district when the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) had acquired land in the area in the 1970s and ’80s.
The state government’s decision comes weeks after thousands of protestors marched to the CIDCO headquarters in Belapur to press their demand to name the upcoming airport after the local hero.
An earlier proposal to name the airport after Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray had sparked widespread protests for almost a year in Navi Mumbai, Raigad, Thane, and Palghar districts.
In a letter addressed to CIDCO in December 2020, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who was then the state’s Urban Development Minister, had proposed that the airport be named after Bal Thackeray. CIDCO followed through on Shinde’s letter.
Dinkar Balu Patil, also known as D B Patil, was born in Jasai, a village in the Uran taluka of Raigad district. He was associated with the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP). Born into a farmer’s family, Patil did his LLB in 1951 and, a year later, won an election to the Kolaba district local board. He then represented Panvel in the Maharashtra Assembly for five terms between 1957 and 1980.
