The residents of Parandur and 12 other neighbouring villages, who have been protesting for months against the construction of Chennai’s second airport on their land, have called off the plan to take out a foot march to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly building on coming Monday, October 17. The decision came in the wake of a meeting between the village residents and state ministers — namely Public Works Minister EV Velu, Industries Minister Thangam Thennarasu, Rural Industries Minister TM Anbarasan — at the Tamil Nadu Secretariat. During the discussion, the ministers reportedly promised the villagers that their concerns over the new airport project will be conveyed to Chief Minister MK Stalin.
As many as seven revenue villages in the Kancheepuram block and six in the Sriperumbudur block of the Kancheepuram district have been earmarked for the proposed greenfield airport project. The people in the locality have opposed the project ever since, alleging that such a move would result in the loss of both land and livelihood for them. The residents, school-going children included, have also been conducting daily evening protests. It is as part of the villagers’ series of agitations that earlier this week, on Tuesday, they decided to conduct a foot march towards the Assembly building on October 17, when the next legislative session is scheduled to begin. Though they have temporarily called off the foot march after the meeting with the ministers, they are likely to continue their daily evening protest, which has now completed 80 days.
Though the government has offered them alternative lands, jobs, financial assistance and 3.5 times the market value for their lands, the residents have asserted that they do not want to give up their ancestral and agricultural lands. Early on, in the wake of the protests, Parandur and the neighbouring villages had been isolated with strict police security. Social activists and farmers who tried to discuss the situation with residents were also detained, and restricted from entering the villages.
Several environmentalists and social activists have raised their voice against the proposed airport project, and the way the government has been handling the situation in Parandur. Poovulagin Nanbargal, a Tamil Nadu-based environmental protection organisation, has warned the state government that there would be an ecological disaster if it went ahead with the construction of the airport in Parandur.
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