CHENNAI: Another day, another land acquisition notice for the villagers of Ekanapuram.
Despite nearly 800 days of protests, land acquisition notices have been issued for a total of 445 acres of land in Ekanapuram village by the Tamil Nadu government for the development of the proposed Parandur Greenfield Airport project.
Land owners can submit their objections within 30 days, the announcement states.
The next set of notifications has been issued despite constant protests against the airport.
Earlier, notices were issued for over 387 acres of land in Ekanapuram village.
On September 24, landowners had submitted their objection petitions to the authorities at the Zone-2 Land Acquisition Office in Karai village.
On September 27, a group of protestors representing the village were detained by the police for attempting to approach the CM during his visit to Kancheepuram for the DMK Platinum Jubilee function. The protestors had officially sought audience with the CM but were denied.
While multiple discussions and negotiations have been held with local authorities, key stakeholders in the project have remained unreachable since the start of the project.
TIDCO has refused to release the hydrogeological report produced by a high-level committee led by Machendranathan IAS. Ministers have not responded to their queries regarding their potential displacement.
Concerned authorities have repeatedly evaded questions seeking clarity on how and why Parandur has been selected for developing the airport.
A representative of the Villagers Against Parandur Airport Movement commented on the government's promise to compensate and relocate the villagers.
"What will we do with a house in an unknown place? We already have nice houses in our own villages. We have agriculture to sustain ourselves. Even if we are employed elsewhere, what kind of jobs will we get? There is no guarantee for employment. We will have to let go of our current lives and start afresh somewhere else. What will our children do? It will be difficult for us to settle somewhere else," he said.
The airport project
The Parandur airport, which is going to be the second airport in Chennai, will be built upon 1963.17 hectares of fertile irrigated lands (1031.21 ha of wet agricultural land, 355.22 ha of dry agricultural land, and 576.74 ha of water bodies), 173 ha of government land and 36.56 ha of developed land.
Ekanapuram is among the larger villages to be affected by the airport project. Villagers fear that their village will be completely destroyed if the airport project continues as planned. According to the current airport plan, two runways are set to be built upon the village and the neighbouring water bodies.