Protest mounting against Aranmula airport project

Pathanamthitta: The controversy over the setting up of a private airport at Aranmula took a new turn on Friday with the villagers protesting against the notification issued by the Industries department declaring 500 acres of land spread across the Mallappuzhasserry, Kidangannur and Aranmula villages as an industrial area.
The agitated villagers under the aegis of the People’s Action Council laid siege to the office of the KGS Aranmula Greenfield Airport Office on the Kidangannur Road in the morning.
Addressing the protest meeting, the Action council leaders, A. Padmakumar, A.K. Muraleedhara Kurup, Prasad Verumkal and Joji Varghese, alleged that the international airport project itself was part of a big land scam and fraud as the promoter company did not have a single cent of land of its own in Aranmula.
They alleged that the company that claimed to have obtained clearances for setting up an international airport even before purchasing any piece of land for the same was a major case to be seriously probed into.
The protesters demanded the Government to take immediate steps to cancel the notification issued by the Industries department declaring 500 acres of thickly populated areas in the three villages in the larger interests of protecting hundreds of hapless villagers in this part of the State from the ``landgrabbers’’.
09/12/11 The Hindu

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Categories: airports Dec 2011, New Dec 2011