Withdraw from Aranmula airport project , VM Sudheeran tells State Govt.

published on February 10, 2013

Congress leader VM Sudheeran has asked the Kerala government to withdraw decision to pick up equity in the Aranmula airport project as it would result in endorsing illegal actions and irregularities supposedly done by promoters.

Sudheeran has termed the decision as ‘unfortunate’ as the project proposal lack transparency and full of flaws and irregularities. He expressed fear about the state government’s image being tarnished if project proposals were implemented solely on the basis of promoters’ assurances.

In a letter to Chief Minister Oomen Chandy, Sudheeran has sought a complete stop to all steps taken in connection with the project. He has also asserted the need for initiating an unbiased and transparent study of the airport project proposal with the aid of experts. “The experts should be those acceptable to organisations that had raised various environmental and geological concerns,” he said.

Sudheeran has also requested the Chief Minister to send the report by the Assembly Committee on Environment to the Central Ministry of Environment and Forest for deeper study. “A credible techno-economic feasibility study must be done. The Chief Minister should visit the locality to understand the popular sentiment before taking a decision,” he said.

“The government should have taken into consideration the report of the District Collector. It was opportunism that made the government go ahead by taking advantage of the wrong decision of the previous Achuthanandan government to give ‘in-principle’ clearance. Instead of correcting such wrong decisions, using it conveniently to justify one’s own action was condemnable,” said Sudheeran, adding that District Collector had “cancelled entries in the land registry related to the land earmarked for the project, posing a question mark over the promoters’ claim on the property.”

The Congress leader also referred to the numerous procedures which were initiated against the project. He also drew the Chief Minister’s attention to reports from Assembly Committees mentioning environmental issues, flaws in the proposal, and shortcomings on part of officials. “The government had committed a major lapse by not adopting steps as per the recommendations of the Assembly panel, which amounted to contempt of the Assembly,” he added.