ENVIRONMENTALISTS OPPOSE ARANMULA AIRPORT PROJECT

ENVIRONMENTALISTS OPPOSE ARANMULA AIRPORT PROJECT

Noted poet Sugathakumari and a senior Congress leader V M Sudheeran Friday came out against the private international airport coming at Aranmula in Pathanamthitta district saying the project was detrimental to ecology and environment.Amid protests by some locals, Kerala government had ysterday gave its nod to the proposed Aranmula International Airport and decided to have a 10 per cent stake in the Rs 2000 crore project.Talking to reporters here, Sudheeran asked the government to withdraw its decision to have 10 per cent share in the project while Sugathakumari demanded scrapping the project itself.It was very unfortunate that government gave stamp of approval to a project that violated provisions of State Land Reforms, environment laws and Conservation of Paddy Fields and Wet Lands Act, Sudheeran said.Sugathakumari, a social and environmental activists, said the project was coming in an area declared as "heritage village" and all political parties including a section in Congress in Aranmula has pledged that "they will not allow the airport to come up".

Stating that government has ignored the people's wish on the matter, she said an action council against the project would decide further course of action on the issue, if government decides to go ahead with the project.Sudheeran, a former minister and Assembly Speaker, said government completely ignored a State Assembly Committee report on the project which clearly opposed it on environmental grounds. "It was surprising that government gave approval to a project for which no environmental impact study had been conducted", he said.Sugathakumari said she had brought the issue to the notice of Defence Minister A K Antony, who had asked the concerned department to have a probe into the matter.

Prof. John Kurakar