Chennai Airport Expansion
Currently Chennai Airport is on one side of Adayar river. In the year 2004-05, to facilitate airport expansion project, registration of land on both sides of the river was suspended during Jayalalitha's regime. After deliberations a decision was taken to expand the airport on the same side without crossing the river. Subsequently registration of land on the other side of the river was resumed. Lot of people bought and constructed houses and most of them are in the process of construction thier dream homes. When DMK came to power the descision was taken to expand the airport on the other side of the river in the year 2007 march. This decision was taking purely to garner some votes. When the government is evicting poor people living in the periphery of rivers and canals in the name of protecting waterbodies, how can an organisation like AAI (Tommorrow some private bodies)own a huge chunk of river by creating facilities to aide its own agenda on both sides of the river. There is every possibility that this could be catastrophic in terms of environmental and ecological damage.
Should Jayalalitha or the MMDA(authorised bulding plans) is to be punished for allowing people to buy properties ?
Can Politicians those elected by the people take the very people who elected them for granted in the name of Infrastructure development ?
The expansion of Airport is by spending Rs 2500 crores is by no means a small project, should the city planners have made such plans well in advance, not like this, first announcing expansion on the same side and then reversing the old decision and saying it will be on the other side ?
Does the constitution says that water bodies should be encroached only by Government bodies irrespective of the damage to the environment and not by the common man, who is just trying to make a living when the government has failed to ensure a decent living ?
