Aranmula Airport: Govt bid to sell puramboke land

Even though the government said that it would not challenge the Green Tribunal decision in Aranmula Airport issue, they were all out to help the KGS Group, promoters of the Airport, by proposing to sell 40 acres of puramboke land in the project area.

In a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, it was decided that the puramboke land in the project site having an approximate extent of 40 acres will be sold for the purpose of the project at a price  fixed by the revenue Department as per prevailing market rate.

The Minutes of the meeting convened on February 7 also said that the application for exemption for land ceiling for the proposed land in the project area should be examined on the same line as was done for the land for Medical College in favour of Abraham Kalamannil. In the meeting, it was said that the government had the power to give exemption for such projects for public purpose.

Pointing out that puramboke land was public property and the government could not sell the land, highly placed officials said purumboke land are generally given away for public purpose. As per the Kerala Land Assignment Act, puromboke lands cannot be assigned as such. However, the government has the powers to assign purumboke lands only for public purpose, which the officials said was not involved here.  ''It is only for a business purpose that the purumboke land is being sold, which is against the law,'' they said. 

Source: the New Indian express

http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/282928/The-New-Indian-Express-Thiruvananthapuram/04-06-2014#page/4/1

Aranmula: Govt for giving exemption to over 200 acres of land

The state government, which is so adamant in supporting the controversial private Airport at Aranmula despite widespread protests citing several legal impediments pertaining to land acquisition and environment disasters , has decided to go ahead with granting exemption to more than 200 acres of land that the airport promoters -- KGS group had acquired as part of the project.

The Revenue department has been asked to make a proposal in the cabinet with regard to providing exemption to the land acquired by the private company inviloation of the Land Reforms Act. The decision was taken at a meeting held on Friday, which was attended by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, Pathanamthitta MLA K Shivadasan Nair, Revenue Principal Secretary Sathyajeeth Rajan and top officials from the Land Board and Commissionerate of Land Revenue.

In the meeting it was also decided to file a counter affidavit against the Green Tribunal order that stayed the construction of the airport until further orders, highly placed sources said. The meeting observed that the government had the discretionary powers to give exemption for the project under the Land Reforms Act and also from the Wet land and Paddy Conservation Act, the sources said.

Source: The New Indian Express

http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/225885/The-New-Indian-Express-Thiruvananthapuram/08-02-2013#page/4/1

Aranmula Airport: AG sees red in green clearance

The state government, which is already facing the heat for the green clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests for the controversial Aranmula Airport project, has once again come under fire with the Accountant General stating that Environment Department of Kerala has taken a ''favourable stand'' to the project concealing the fact that ecological/ environmental damage has taken place.

''The audit found that while giving the recommendation to the MoEF for the green clearance, the Department instead of considering the environmental/ecological aspects, took a stand favouarable to the proposed project. The department itself admitted that ecological/environmental damage has taken place but accused the farmers for not raising these problems earlier,'' the AG said in its latest audit report. The Audit report is now circulated among the various departments for their reports.

The AG's report, which is in the possession of Express, also points out that the Environment Department had not considered the report of the Kerala Biodiversity Board on the environmental problems, which enumerated serious issues caused by the reclamation of the proposed project.

Source

The New Indian Express

http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/212880/The-New-Indian-Express-Thiruvananthapuram/13-01-2014#page/1/1   http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/212880/The-New-Indian-Express-Thiruvananthapuram/13-01-2014#page/5/1

Industries Dept trespassed its jurisdiction in Aranmula Airport: AG

At a time when VS Achuthanandan is bearing the brunt for the clearance of the controversial Aranmula airport project during the LDF tenure when he was the CM, the Accountant General has put the blame on the Industries Deportment, which was then headed by Elamaram Kareem.

The Accountant General in its Audit report has found that the Industries Department had crossed the boundaries of their jurisdiction and issued “in -principle” sanction for the project without conducting necessary studies on the environmental/ecological impact and without consulting the allied departments.

In the audit report it said that the Industries department had trespassed into the jurisdiction of the Transport department. '' The Transport department of the state is the nodal department for the project of Greenfield Airport. Hence action on application for the No Objection Certificate and approval for the proposed project should have been submitted to the Transport department,'' the AG said in the Audit report that has been issued to the various departments, calling for their reports.

The AG said that the the KGS company requested for NOC in April 2010 for the construction of the Greenfield Airport at Aranmula to Additional Chief Secretary (Industries). Based on the request, the Additional Chief Secretary (Industries) issued the Government order (September 2010) giving in principle approval for the Airport.

 Moreover, the Industries department had surpassed the Committee on Environment's opinion that it was not appreciable to commence projects without conducting geographical/environmental studies and its suggestion that in-principle sanction should be given only after consulting other departments, the AG noted.

source: The New Indian Express 

http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/211335/The-New-Indian-Express-Thiruvananthapuram/10-01-2014#page/2/1

Aranmula Airport: Kerala's magnanimity when having tough time for giving land to the poor

The state government's move to hand over revenue land to the promoters of the proposed 
Private airport project at Aranmula comes at a time when the revenue department is going 
through a tough time to identify three cents of land each for the poor as part of the Zero 
Landless project.
Apart from Kannur and Kasargode, the landless outnumber the plots identified in the other 
districts. It has also been alleged that the government is giving prime land to the airport that
would have resulted in serious environmental disaster at Aranmula when the land distributed 
as part of the Zero Landless was mired in controversies related to ownership and its 
uninhabitable nature. Though the government claims to have identified about 75,000 plots in 
the first phase of the project, the proceedings have been completed only in the case of 
25,000 families. The government's hasty move to provide land to the KGS Aranumla 
International Airport Ltd has raised several questions even when apprehensions are there over
the implementation of the UDF Government’s flagship populist programme ''Zero
Landless Project''.

Source: The New Indian Express

http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/188179/The-New-Indian-Express-Thiruvananthapuram/22-11-2013#page/4/1