Aranmula airport: Meet seeks to untangle legal issues

Proposed international airport project at Aranmula

July 05, 2013 08:25 pm | Updated June 13, 2016 07:15 am IST - PATHANAMTHITTA:

District Collector Pranab Jyotinath convened an official meeting at the collectorate here on Friday afternoon to discuss the cases pending before court in connection with the proposed international airport project at Aranmula.

The meeting was a sequel to the high-level meetings convened by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Chief Secretary E.K. Bharat Bhushan during the past one week, exploring the possibility of implementing the private airport project, overcoming the legal issues involved.

Friday’s meeting was attended by P.T. Nandakumar, executive director of the airport company; H. Salimraj, Additional District Magistrate; Sabu Thomas, district government pleader; and A.T. Sureshkumar, Deputy Collector (Land Reforms), who is also the chairman of the Taluk Land Board, official sources said.

The Chief Minister has reiterated on more than one occasion the government’s firm decision to support the airport project. The government has even accepted the 10 per cent sweat equity offered to it by the promoter company, KGS Aranmula International Airport Limited, a few months ago.

According to official sources, the key point of discussion at both the high-level meetings in Thiruvananthapuram was ways to wriggle out of the legal issues.

Agitation

The government decision to support the project draws flak from local people and leaders of various mainstream political parties, including certain Congress leaders. They oppose the move to convert the Aranmula paddy land (puncha) into an airport. The local people have been waging an agitation against the project under the banner of the Aranmula Heritage Village Protection Council and the Joint Action Council for the past two years.

The Kozhencherry Taluk Land Board had declared 232 acres of land at Aranmula that forms part of the proposed airport site as excess land, invoking the provisions of the Kerala Land Reforms Act a few months ago.

The board has registered a case against KGS for possessing land exceeding the limit of 15 acres at Aranmula.

Meanwhile, Sugathakumari, poet and chairperson of the Joint Action Council, has alleged that the presence of a KGS official at the Pathanamthitta collectorate on Friday was nothing but a continuation of a series of illegal acts to protect the interests of the private company. The government, she said, should clarify on what grounds it had permitted the KGS official to attend the official meeting.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.