Airport land acquisition opposed

Staff Reporter

TAMBARAM: The Anakaputhur Municipality on Monday passed a unanimous resolution, urging the State government not to acquire land from the local body for the proposed Chennai airport modernisation. During a routine meeting of the Municipality, all the 18 councillors assented to the resolution that the State government should drop the proposal of acquiring land from areas within its jurisdiction.

According to B. Velayudham, Chairman of the Municipality, 883 structures, including four temples, a mosque, 558 pucca houses, 156 tiled houses, 156 thatched houses and some public buildings would have to be demolished if land is acquired for the proposed airport expansion project. As this would have a severe effect on the lives of a few thousand people, they decided to appeal to the government to drop the move, Mr. Velayudham said.

Minister's assurance

Praful Patel, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, has written to Sitaram Yechury, MP and CPI(M) leader, that the grievances of people living around the Chennai airport were being looked into. In April, Mr. Yechury had submitted to Mr. Patel, a bunch of petitions from people living around the Chennai airport.

The petitions had expressed the residents' apprehensions about the proposed project. Following this, the Union Minister had replied earlier this month that the matter was being examined.

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Residents near airport want their grievances addressed

Staff Reporter

They have been staging protests against the expansion plan

TAMBARAM: The newly elected Members of the Legislative Assembly in the southern suburbs have quite a handful of pressing issues to be addressed, particularly the demands of close to one lakh people living near the Chennai airport and the Indian Air Force Base in Tambaram.

While the residents living close to the IAF base have been keeping their fingers crossed on the status of No Objection Certificate, residents in Pozhichalur, Gowl Bazaar, Anakaputhur and nearby places have been staging a series of protests against the proposed airport expansion. Residents and activists in these places insist that the newly elected representatives should voice their concerns in the Assembly and ensure that there is no displacement.

While welcoming any move for development and carrying out improvement works, they said priority should be given for safeguarding the life and livelihood of residents living here for several decades. The suburbs have a minister in T.M. Anbarasan, elected from the Alandur constituency. And both the IAF base and the areas coming under the proposed Chennai airport expansion programme are located in the Tambaram constituency, represented by S.R. Raja. For the past two months, residents in the Pozhichalur area have been staging all forms of protest to express their discontent over the manner in which the proposed scheme is to be executed, by removing nearly 5,000 houses, temples and schools. Their demands are very simple and straight: why a dense habitation was selected while acres of vacant land were available closer to the airport?

And they expect the newly elected representatives and the Minister to speak on behalf of them in the Assembly and also take up the issue with the State and Central governments. Members of the Federation of Residents Association of Pozhichalur said with a State government in place by the party that was part of the Central government too, it would be easy to resolve the issue without causing problems to anyone.

Confusion over NOC

And in Tambaram, residents want both the State and Central governments to come clean on the confusion prevailing over the issuance of NOCs for constructing houses near the IAF base. With contradictory and confusing statements from different quarters, there was ambiguity all around, according to T. Victor, president of the association formed to protect the interests of people living within 900 metres from the periphery of the IAF base in Tambaram.

Stating that Mr. Raja had assured in his election manifesto that the NOC issue for residents near the IAF base would be looked into and that steps would be taken in their favour, Mr. Victor hoped that the issue would be taken up at all levels and resolved once and for all.

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