The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government will not give clearance for the Aranmula greenfield airport ignoring the stiff public resistance against the project, BJP State unit president V. Muraleedharan has said.
Mr. Muraleedharan told reporters here on Sunday that the row over the name of the project figuring in the Economic Survey published prior to the Union Budget was baseless. The previous UPA government had approved the project and was pursuing it.
The Economic Survey was only a statement of facts of what had happened earlier. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had not mentioned about the project in his budget speech. Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar had denied environment clearance for the airport and had not retracted from the stance.
Though the BJP manifesto had clearly mentioned the need for small airports to link different corners of the country, the Centre had decided to turn down the clearance for the Aranmula project in the wake of public protest. The national BJP leadership was in touch with the State unit and would not approve the project ignoring the people’s will. The rumours in this score were baseless, he said.
The Centre had already sanctioned an IIT for the State and hence it was not repeated in the budget speech, he said.
