The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is engaged in a misinformation campaign to save its face over the mass movement spearheaded by the party against the Aranmula airport project and make people believe that the Union government will not permit the project, former member of the Planning Board Peelipose Thomas has alleged.
Mr. Thomas said in a statement here on Monday that the uneasy flutter in the BJP camp was evident in the ambiguous statement made by BJP State president V. Muraleedharan that it was improper to interpret the inclusion of the project proposal in the Union government’s Economic Survey as the Centre’s support to the project. Mr. Muraleedharan should study the relevant papers before making such statements, he said.
Pro-airport policy
He said the Budget speech by Arun Jaitley had categorically stated that ‘Scheme for development of new airports in Tier-I and Tier-II towns will be launched.’ The Aranmula project had been included as 9th on the list of greenfield airports to be set up in the Economic Survey report presented by Mr Jaitley before the Parliament.
‘Claim against facts’
Mr. Thomas said the BJP claim that Union Minister for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar had informed the party State unit that the government was not considering the application seeking environment clearance for the airport was against facts.
The 143rd meeting of the Expert Apprisal Committee attached to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) held on January 6 and 7 had considered the application filed by the KGS Aranmuila International Airport Company seeking fixing of the terms of reference for carrying out an environment impact assessment at the site for the project, he said. The minutes of the meeting chaired by the committee chairman, Anil Razdan, showed that the KGS company representatives had elaborated the project details, he said.
The KGS company informed the committee that the State government had already nominated a representative to the company director board. The company further apprised the committee that the Kerala government had been retaining the project area as an industrial area, amply convincing the government that the State stood firmly for the project, he said.
In this context, the people of Kerala deserved an apology from the BJP State chief the misinformation campaign, Mr. Thomas said.
