Proposed New Greenfield Airport for Chennai (Photo:X)
Chennai: Over 300 farmers, including women, who set out to take a procession on tractors from the Parandur area in Kanchipuram district that has been earmarked for the new Greenfield airport for Chennai, were arrested by the police and lodged in community halls, forcing them and also the people of the 20 villages that would be taken over for the project to go on hunger strike by skipping lunch on Monday.
Though the people of the 20 villages, particularly Eganapuram that would be completely lost if the airport comes, had launched a continuous agitation the very day the site was announced as the chosen place for Chennai’s second airport in August, 2022. That protest that went on for about 600 days with the villagers gathering at night after work to meet and raise slogans slowly fizzled out.
However, those spearheading the movement by forming two associations opposed to the airport kept the ember of protest alive by continuously interacting with the people and preparing the ground for a legal battle. They had even obtained details about the working of the Chennai Meenambakkam airport through RTI and were preparing the ground to fight it out when the authorities came for their land.
So when an advertisement issuing notice to acquire 98 acres of land belonging to 218 villagers in Podavur village was published in newspapers, the people realized that the land acquisition process had begun and that the government was testing their reaction by first going for parcels of land not under cultivation.
Among the total requirement of 5,746 acres of land for the airport, 3,7774 acres were private patta land with most of them under cultivation. While the rest of the 1,972 acres of land belonged to the government – it has irrigation ponds and other water bodies – the government had fixed the compensation for the 3,7774 acres at Rs 1,822.45. Though several efforts were made to convince the people to give up their land and move out, they were adamant, saying that they did not want to lose their livelihood, and launched the agitation.
So when the notice was published, it ignited the protest with the people holding an emergency meeting on Sunday and deciding to take out the procession to the land acquisition office near Ponnerikarai in the district. But as they geared up for the march on Monday morning to the office where they were asked to go with their objections, a heavy posse of police force, drawn from several stations, surrounded them and took them into custody.
When the police objected to the protestors, most of them women, riding on the tractors, they said that they would march to the office in Ponneri Karai and besiege it. The people said that they were not prepared to lose their livelihood by moving out of their traditional homes and remained steadfast in resisting any attempt to start the land acquisition process.
So when an advertisement issuing notice to acquire 98 acres of land belonging to 218 villagers in Podavur village was published in newspapers, the people realized that the land acquisition process had begun and that the government was testing their reaction by first going for parcels of land not under cultivation.
Among the total requirement of 5,746 acres of land for the airport, 3,7774 acres were private patta land with most of them under cultivation. While the rest of the 1,972 acres of land belonged to the government – it has irrigation ponds and other water bodies – the government had fixed the compensation for the 3,7774 acres at Rs 1,822.45. Though several efforts were made to convince the people to give up their land and move out, they were adamant, saying that they did not want to lose their livelihood, and launched the agitation.
So when the notice was published, it ignited the protest with the people holding an emergency meeting on Sunday and deciding to take out the procession to the land acquisition office near Ponnerikarai in the district. But as they geared up for the march on Monday morning to the office where they were asked to go with their objections, a heavy posse of police force, drawn from several stations, surrounded them and took them into custody.
When the police objected to the protestors, most of them women, riding on the tractors, they said that they would march to the office in Ponneri Karai and besiege it. The people said that they were not prepared to lose their livelihood by moving out of their traditional homes and remained steadfast in resisting any attempt to start the land acquisition process.
( Source : Deccan Chronicle )
Next Story
