Medha Patkar asks govt to drop land acquisition plan

Medha Patkar asks govt to drop land acquisition plan


CHENNAI: Madha Patkar's arrival in the city provided a boost to residents of Manapakkam, Kolapakkam, Gerugambakkam, Tharapakkam and Kovur who have been opposing government acqusition of land for the proposed Chennai airport expansion.

Patkar has pledged support to hundreds whose lands have been identified for acquisition. After taking part in a protest meet organised by residents at the Manapakkam-Ramapuram junction on Mount Poonamallee Road near MIOT Hospital on Friday, Patkar met Tamil Nadu chief secretary K S Sripathy and urged the government to drop the proposal to acquire land and also to discuss the issue with affected residents.

Earlier, Patkar told media persons that the government and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) should take into account views of residents and that "no plan should be imposed undemocratically on the people." She said that all information pertaining to a project should be put up before the people as there was lack of transparency during the initial stages of infrastructure projects.

She criticised the government move to acquire land even though it could lead to displacement of about 1,000 families, and said that it reflected "ad hoc planning." Patkar pointed out that the National Rehabilitation Policy disapproved of displacement without rehabilitation. "Thousands of people were evicted with the approval of government for projects done on an ad hoc mode across the country," she said.

Promoting projects assuming that traffic would multiply in the future was improper, according to Patkar. She said that the economic slowdown was slowly impacting the country and that only small airports were needed, not grand structures. She referred to the "politician-corporate nexus working in planning grand infrastructure projects."

Residents who took part in the protest reiterated that they were not ready to give up their land because they did not want to be relocated to another place. "All of us have purchased houses by taking loans.

We continue to pay monthly instalments because the state government has not issued the final notice confirming that the identified locations will be taken up for proposed airport expansion work," said a resident.


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