THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state BJP leadership’s opposition to the proposed Erumeli airport might give its CPM counterparts a feeling of deja vu. The BJP is projecting its protest against the airport as an agitation for the landless people - once perceived as a CPM strong area.
The government maintains that the airport would be beneficial for Sabarimala pilgrims, but the detractors pointed out that the project undermined the very spirit of pilgrimage while making Sabarimala another tourist destination.
It was mentioned to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan that Erumeli is located in the buffer zone of the Periyar Tiger Reserve, but he downplayed the point saying the project should not be objected even before identifying the site.
“The BJP is not against airport but it should come in government land,” BJP national executive member V Muralidharan told ‘Express’.
The BJP said the government was planning to set up the airport at Cheruvally estate which it had taken over in May, 2015 from the Believers Church headed by evangelist Archbishop K P Yohannan. “If the government sets up an airport on the government land complying with all the laws and without causing damage to the environment, BJP will welcome it. But now, it is planning to set up the airport in the Cheruvally estate and a case is pending in the court. By giving a share of the airport company to Yohanann in the name of the ownership of the land, the government is forfeiting its rights on its own land. It will weaken the state’s position in the case against illegal possession of over 5 lakh acres of land under the possession of corporate giants,” said Muralidharan.
He said it was important to think whether another airport was necessary in the state when most of the airports were underutilised.
BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan has already made it clear that the party would launch an agitation for the second round of land reforms. The BJP leadership meeting held at Kozhikode in September had also taken the decision to campaign for land reforms to distribute land for the over 3 lakh landless people. “In view of this, any attempt to set up airport in land to be distributed among the landless will be resisted,” he said.