The Thiruvaranmula Paithruka Grama Karma Samiti (TPGKS) has welcomed the report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism, and Culture chaired by Sitaram Yechury that found there was no need for setting up an airport at Aranmula in the 150-km radius of an international airport in Kerala.
Samiti general convener P.R. Shaji said the Parliamentary committee’s report was a supporting factor to the stand taken by the people of Aranmula on the controversial private airport project.
Mr. Shaji expressed hope that the Union government would accept the committee’s report and cancel clearances accorded to it without delay. The people’s action council’s strong fears were that the controversial private airport project at Aranmula involved alarming environmental and legal issues, he said. The Revolutionary Youth Front (RYF), too, welcomed the Parliamentary panel’s findings on the airport project.
Saleem P. Chacko, RYF national executive committee member, said the panel’s recommendation was a recognition to the ongoing mass movement against the project.
Cancel clearances: CPI
The Communist Party of India (CPI) has called upon the Union and the State governments to cancel whatever clearances they had granted for setting up the proposed private airport project at Aranmula in the wake of the findings of the parliamentary standing committee.
In a statement here on Friday, P. Prasad, CPI district secretary, said the committee findings had exposed the fact that various clearances granted to the controversial airport project by the Union Ministries of Defence and Civil Aviation were against the laws of the land.