Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said that after the UDF Government came to power it had taken a stand that no new landfilling would be allowed for the Aranmula airport.
Speaking at the inauguration of lecture series, ‘’Contemporary politics and Kerala Development’’ on Monday, Chandy said: ‘’Our stand is transparent and clear. We have made it clear that no new land will be filled for the Aranmula airport. Additional land will be allotted only if more land is needed for the runway.’’
He said that political unity was necessary to attract investment into the state and overall development of Kerala.
‘’Neighbouring states like Karnataka have gone way ahead of us in the IT sector. If we do an introspection we will understand why it happened. Even a flagship project like Smart City which was initiated in 2004 was delayed by four to five years. The period of four to five years is a long gap when it comes to IT sector.
“We have fallen behind other states because political parties in the state are not united on developmental issues,’’ he said. Chandy said that Kerala has immense potential in educational and health sector which should fully utilised.
‘’The Foreign Direct Investment in Kerala is just Rs 2,000 crore while going by the total population of the state it should be at least 3 per cent of the total FDI coming into the country, which means that the state should attract at least Rs 6,000 crore. If we leverage the full potential of the state in education and health sector then the FDI can even cross the Rs 6,000 crore mark,’’ the Chief Minister added.