Navi Mumbai: CIDCO Lottery Winners Stage Massive Protest, Demands Price Reduction for 26,000 Homes

Hundreds of CIDCO lottery winners, who were promised affordable homes but were instead offered overpriced properties, staged a protest in Belapur, calling it the "Injection Morcha" against the planning agency. They were demanding to bring down the prices of 26,000 homes for which a lottery was conducted recently. The agitation was backed by the Navi Mumbai unit of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).

The protest gained momentum as thousands of frustrated citizens, including senior citizens, women, and families, marched under the scorching sun, symbolically carrying syringes to signal that CIDCO needed a wake-up call. Anger against CIDCO had been mounting after the planning agency refused to reduce home prices in prior discussions. Protesters accused CIDCO of misleading citizens by advertising affordable housing while ultimately setting prices beyond the reach of the common man.

As the agitation intensified, demonstrators built a symbolic small house at the protest site, while women set up makeshift stoves and began cooking meals on the streets—a powerful statement that if CIDCO failed to provide affordable homes, they would be forced to live there. With no response from CIDCO for hours, tensions escalated. At 2 PM, seeing no action, MNS leader Gajanan Kale called for a "Jail Bharo" movement, urging protesters to voluntarily surrender themselves for arrest. Thousands of CIDCO lottery winners immediately responded, creating chaos among the police and CIDCO officials.

Following negotiations, CIDCO announced a 28-day extension for the payment of the confirmation amount required to secure homes. The decision provided temporary relief to the lottery winners, giving them more time to continue their fight for fair pricing.