Protest against new airport to spill on to Chennai roads

CHENNAI: The simmering anger and discontent among the people in Parandur and surrounding villages over the government proposal to set up a greenfield airport in Kanchipuram district is likely to spill over to Chennai roads on Monday as those fearing loss of land and house are gearing up to take out a protest march to the State Assembly when its monsoon session starts.

Ever since the announcement on the site for Chennai's second airport was made by the Union government, the people of the 13 villages, where large scale land acquisition is expected to be carried out by the state government, have been protesting against the project and have been organising themselves through regular meetings and black flag agitations.

In most of the villages, protests have been a daily feature between 7 pm and 9 pm in the past 78 days, while many other efforts have also been made by the people to put pressure on the government to change the site for the airport coming up in 4750 acres of land covering the 13 villages.

The villages that fall under the site map include Parandur, Valathur, Thandalam, Nelvai, Melpadavur and Madapuram in Kanchipuram taluk and Eganapuram, Edayarpakkam, Kunakaranpakkam, Akkamapuram, Singilipadi and Mahadevi Mangalam in Sriperumbudur taluk.

Among them, the people fear that five villages, including Eganapuram, Nelvai and Thandalam, would be completely wiped out with their agricultural lands levelled up and houses demolished. The people fear that they would be totally displaced from the land in which they have been living for generations and be made refugees without a place of their own.

These sentiments have been expressed in the regular night meetings when people gather in a common place after work and they have collectively pledged to be firm in their resolve to not give up their land for the airport project, come what may.

Though the government had even promised them handsome compensation for the acquired land, offering even three times the market rate, the people are now not in favour of moving out of their homes and villages and losing their livelihood.

Even the lure of development has not made any impact on the people’s resolve to remain in their traditional habitation and resist the government’s move. Attempts by the officials and also some senior politicians assigned to convince the people on the merits of development have repeatedly failed and the deployment of police pickets in the region has not dampened their spirit.

While police did manage to prevent many outsiders, activists and politicians, from interacting with the villagers and mobilizing them against the project by stopping them on the way and whisking them away, some politicians did manage to meet up with the protestors.

Now, the people have decided to march to the Secretariat on October 17, when the Assembly is convened, raising concerns for the government.