Local residents stop land demarcation for Thiruvananthapuram international airport

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An alleged gap of communication hit the efforts by government to take over land for Thiruvananthapuram international airport expansion on Thursday. Local residents near Muttathara here blocked revenue officials when they reached the spot for demarcating the land, alleging that though it was assured at a meeting convened by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on December 28 last year that a social impact assessment of the locality would be done before land acquisition, there was no further communication in this regard.

However, the government has already entrusted Loyola College of Social Sciences for the social impact assessment and initiated steps for negotiated purchase of land, which may fetch better compensation to land owners. But these decisions were not conveyed, it is learnt. A team of revenue officials led by deputy collector V.R. Vinod, accompanied with a strong posse of police, went for demarcation of 18 acres of land in Pettah village that need to be acquired. The local residents, led by action council leaders and Chakai ward councilor K Sreekumar, the area gathered in large numbers and blocked the officials. They were not convinced by the revenue officials' assurance that steps are taken for social impact study.

As the revenue team reached the spot, local people led by action council blocked them. Owing to the escalating protest the revenue official dropped the plans for demarcating and returned. “We will apprise the government of the situations and, if required, further talks would be initiated with the local people,” said the deputy collector. The 18 acres required for airport expansion comprise of land belonging to about 275 persons. Of this only 27 land owners so far agreed to handover the land. Apart this, 53 cents in nearby Muttathara village also need to be acquired.