Parandur airport: Mass suicide threat to stop land acquisition

CHENNAI: After the district administration issued a notification to acquire lands in Eganapuram on Wednesday, the villagers staged a protest in the night and said there would be mass suicides in the village if the government passed the second notification.

The villagers also questioned AIADMK leader Edappadi Palanisamy for not even visiting their village once but calling himself a friend of farmers.

It was with much disbelief that the residents heard the news on the Kancheepuram district administration issuing notification for acquiring the lands in Eganapuram for the construction of the Greenfield airport for Eganapuram was the place where they were holding night-long protests day after day demanding that the government change the location of the airport. Following that on Wednesday night, on their 765th day of protest, more than 500 villagers gathered and raised slogans against the State and Central governments and demanded that the location of the airport be changed.

The villagers said they would commit mass suicide in Eganapuram if the government sent another land acquisition notification. They said the Kancheepuram district administration would be solely responsible for the death of the villagers.

The police force who rushed to the protest site tried to arrest the protestors but since the crowd was unmanageable they held peace talks. The villagers then dispersed announcing that the protests would continue and mass suicides were planned as a last attempt to save their farmlands.