The KGS Aranmula International Airport company has misled the judiciary and various Central agencies for obtaining key clearances for the airport project, the Joint Action Council leaders have alleged.
Action council leaders Kummanam Rajashekharan of the Aranmula Heritage Village Action Council, P. Prasad of the Communist Party of India, and Shaji Chacko of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) told The Hindu that there was every reason to suspect a bigger conspiracy behind granting of various clearances to the project by the Defence Ministry, Civil Aviation Ministry and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEFs).
On May 28, the National Green Tribunal had set aside the MoEFs order granting environmental clearance to the project. “The company has misled the Central agencies as well as the judiciary on several occasions by projecting the government order (GO) issued by the Industries Department on September 9, 2010, giving conditional, in-principle clearance to the greenfield airport project as the no objection certificate (NoC) issued by the State government. In pursuance to the Defence clearance for the project, even the local MP, Anto Antony, had written to the then Defence Minister, A.K. Antony, citing the said GO as the NoC granted to the project by the State government,” they alleged.
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In a recent Annexure submitted before the Supreme Court, the company had cited the same order, stating that the Kerala government had given NoC for the project, they alleged. They alleged that in a writ petition filed before the High Court in 2012, the company had included the same GO as an exhibit citing it as the NoC.
The action council leaders alleged that the GO of September 8, 2010, and its ‘misuse’ by the company as well as certain high ranking officials attached to both the State and the Central governments was only the tip of the iceberg of corruption and demanded a comprehensive inquiry by a Central agency into the issue without further delay.