CPM erred in giving nod for airport: MA Baby

Thiruvananthapuram: CPM politburo member and former minister M.A. Baby has said that the last LDF government had erred in granting in-principle approval to the Aranmula airport project.

“It was wrong to ask the district collector to carry out the transfer of registry of the land (proposed airport project site) on the basis of a letter from an MLA,” Baby said during the discussion on the Governor’s address in the Assembly on Tuesday. (He was referring to K.C. Rajagopal, CPM’s former Aranmula MLA, considered close to V.S. Achuthanandan.)

Baby, however, said that the LDF government’s in-principle approval was conditional.

“The collector was asked to do the ‘pokkuvaravu’ only if the project adhered to at least eight laws, including Land Reforms Act and Paddy and Wetland Reclamation Act,” he  said. 

The UDF was not elected to continue the wrongs of the LDF government.

“Now that it has been proved that the project had violated innumerable land laws, the UDF government should not have gone ahead with it", Baby said. Even ruling party MLAs were against the project, he added.

Earlier, CPI leader Mullakkara Ratnakaran too said that the UDF government should not have repeated the mistakes of the LDF government.

He even urged the government to institute a judicial probe into  all the issues related to the project from 2003 till now.

Congress MLA K.Sivadasan Nair ridiculed the Left MLAs for their confession.