The National Green Tribunal’s decision to set aside the environmental clearance given by the Ministry of Environment and Forests for a State-supported private airport project at Aranmula has brought to focus the alleged irregularities in the name of the project.
Talking to The Hindu , experts expressed concern over the alleged criminal negligence on the part of the authorities concerned in facilitating crucial clearances for the project. They said many pertinent questions remained unanswered.
Madhav Gadgil, ecologist and chairman of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, has stated that violation of land and environment conservation laws was evident at the airport site in Aranmula.
Thomas P. Thomas, botanist, wondered what steps the government would take to rectify the illegal conversion of nearly 60 acres of the water-rich paddy land, which was part of the Aranmula Puncha. A portion of the natural stream, Valiyathodu, had been converted in the process and the government had turned a blind eye to partial conversion of the tributary of the Pampa, he alleged
V.N. Gopinatha Pillai, Kerala River Protection Council leader, called upon the District Collector to remove the earth dumped on the paddy land and utilise it for the rail-doubling work.
Plea for Central probe People’s Action Council leaders Kummanam Rajashekharan, K.P. Sreeranganathan, P. Prasad, K.K. Royson, and A. Padmakumar, who had moved the NGT against the airport project, have demanded a comprehensive probe by Central agencies into alleged corruption, financial irregularities, and violation of laws at both the Central and the State level in the name of the project.
The Kozhencherry Taluk Land Board had declared 132 ha of land purchased by the KGS company from its original owner, Abraham
Kalamannil of Mount Zion Group, as excess land. The High Court had stayed the Land Board order directing it to hear the KGS company too before a taking a final decision on the excess land issue. Though the High Court deadline expired on Wednesday, the Taluk Land Board is yet to take a decision on the matter.
P. Induchoodan, and Shaji Chacko, People’s Action Council leaders, called for a thorough probe into the alleged role played by the Prime
Minister’s Office (PMO) as well as the Defence Ministry in facilitating various clearances for the airport project.
Peelipose Thomas, former State Planning Board member, alleged that the State government too was party to these violations and it
had even sent the Advocate-General of Kerala to appear before the NGT in support of the private company.
