The World Malayalee Council (WMC) has appealed to the State government to speed up measures for the acquisition of 162 more acres of land near the Karipur International Airport for its speedy development.
Leaders of the Council, who submitted a memorandum on the issue to the Chief Minister, said around Rs.320 crore allotted by the Airports Authority of India in 2006 would lapse if the acquisition was delayed further. All the other airports in Kerala had utilised the amount allotted by the airport authority in time for the expansion works, they claimed.
The WMC leaders also called upon the government to think of a suitable rehabilitation package for the expatriates who returned to their homeland. The amount collected by the Union government in the name of emigration clearance should be utilised for the purpose, they added. According to WMC leaders C.E. Chakkunni and K. Mohan Kumar, it was high time the government took the initiative for assuring employment for the gulf-returnees in government and semi-government firms in Kerala. The State was quite unprepared to face the aftermath of the new Nitaqat laws which had an impact on gulf Malayalees, they said.
