Protests will continue against Parandur project: Villagers

CHENNAI: Villagers opposing the Parandur airport project near Sriperumbudur on Tuesday vowed to continue their protest till the government dropped the project. Subramanian of Parandur Airport Project Opposition Struggle Committee announced this after another round of talks with the state ministers.

Earlier in the day, state PWD minister E V Velu, state industries ministers Thangam Thennarasu and state MSME minister T M Anbarasan held a fresh round of talks with the protesters at the state secretariat. The talks happened a day after the protesters took out a rally and abruptly called off the same in their village following a request from the local revenue officials to apprise their grievances to the ministers directly at the state secretariat.

Talking to media persons after the meeting at the state secretariat, Subramanian said this morning that they had organized the rally after reports of the government holding a meeting in connection with the pre-feasibility study to be conducted for the airport project.

Explaining the ecological sensitivity and livelihood threat faced by farmers and residents of Ekanapuram among the stakeholder villages in the area earmarked for the airport project, Subramanian said that TIDCO has floated a global tender for conducting a socioeconomic and field investigation (pre-feasibility study) for which the tender would be opened on January 6.

"To reiterate our demands, we organized a rally from Ekanapuram bus stop on Monday. The district revenue officer informed us on behalf of the collector that we could talk with the ministers directly and stopped the rally. Today, we met ministers, " he added.

Claiming that about 3,500 acres of the 4,800 acres earmarked for the airport project was farm land and about 1,000 acres of the 1,317 acres of govt land house water bodies, Subramanian quoted the ministers as assuring them that the government would decide only on the basis of the prefeasibility test report.

Stating that the ministers have requested them to not make any decision, Subramanian said, "Until a favourable decision is made our protests will continue. Our daily evening protests will continue till the government drops the project. Our protests will take various forms based on the decisions of the state govt."

The ministers have asked 'us' to furnish all their details to the firm conducting the prefeasibility study and the IIT expert team conducting tests on the hydrological studies there.