Chennai: The representatives of 13 villages in Parandur met Tamil Nadu Ministers at Secretariat in Chennai on Tuesday. The representatives demanded the government to take the project elsewhere or dropped the project from the list.
On Tuesday, three Ministers--Public Works Minister E V Velu, Industries Minister Thangam Thennarasu and Rural Industries Minister T M Anbarasan--held discussions with a delegation of affected villagers in the Secretariat.
This is the second time such a meeting is taking place in Chennai.
The villagers of Parandur have been staging a protest against the project for over 100 days since the government sought to make the land acquisition for the construction of a new greenfield airport.
On August 26, Tamil Nadu government said that they will provide a compensation 3.5 times higher than the market value for the land, a government job and alternative land for the villagers. However, the villagers continued the protest.
Talking to The New Indian Express, Ekanapuram Village People and Farmers Welfare Board Secretary G Subramanian said, the Ministers have assured that they have just selected the site and only then they will decide based on the feasibility of the site. Hence, a techno-economic study would be performed to decide on the land required for the project and a collective decision would be taken in connection with it.
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Meanwhile, environmentalists have joined the protest against the proposed project. The protestors included retired justice D Hariparanthaman, musician T M Krishna, environmentalist Nityanand Jayaraman and disability rights activist Deepak Nathan. All the activists said that the project will affect the areas downstream of river Adyar.
They also wrote an open letter demanding to drop the project to Tamil Nadu State Disaster Management Authority (TNSDMA).