Jurist V.R. Krishna Iyer has called upon the government not to permit the proposal to construct a private airport at Aranmula by converting the vast expanse of paddy land (puncha) and wetland.
In a message read out at a popular convention against paddy field conversion at Aranmula on Sunday, the former judge of the Supreme Court Judge said no department of the government should give permission to set up the proposed private airport, violating the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act-2008, Environment Protection Act, and the Land Utilisation Act-1967.
Mr. Iyer said the government should take stern action against those who had illegally converted the paddy land at Aranmula. Extending whole-hearted support to the ongoing agitation launched by the Thiruvaranmula Paithruka Grama Karma Samithi to protect the paddy land and wetland at Aranmula, Mr Iyer said conversion of 500 acres of paddy land and wetland for setting up an airport at a heritage village would be suicidal.
He said paddy land and wetlands were the gifts of nature and its destruction would lead to disastrous socio-environmental implications.
Mr. Iyer said the authorities should retreat from the move to hurt the agrarian culture of Aranmula that had been identified as a heritage village by the United Nations Development Programme as well as the Union government.
He called upon the government to withdraw the notification declaring Aranmula an industrial area.
Keywords: Krishna Iyer, Aranmula, ariport
It is our request your majesty,Justice V.R.Krishna Iyer, eminent
scholar, a versatile personality of Kerala shall have to go hunger
strike along with Smt. Sugatha Kumary, noted poet, eminent scholar and
environmentalist to stop this project for ever.I wish to bring the
following points for the term being misused by the KGS Group that they
are bringing a Greenfield Airport. Prima facie the terminology
"greenfield airport" is not all all related to nature & it is not at
all a substitutes word connected to nature as used by the KGS Group.
What is a greenfield airport?A greenfield airport is an airport that
can be allowed, when there is heavy air traffic & beyond the control
to handle flight operations of an existing airport.In other words, it
is as a "scratch airport" that can be permitted to for an aircraft
landing in between the two existing airports & if there is an aerial
distance of minimum 150 km from the nearest airport.The approval is
illegal & has to be challenged in the court.
In a small state like Kerala have three International Airports and two
more in the planning stage. Even in developed nation like America, we
have to travel at least 200 kilometers to reach an International
Airport. Kerala has a coastal line of 590 kilo meters and land is scarce
in Kerala. Justice Krishna Iyer is absolutely correct in saying that the
wet land of Aranmula to be protected. In place of building International
Airports in every 50 kilometers distance; to improve the ground
transportation facilities in Kerala.
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