Even as an all-party meeting has extended its whole-hearted support to the proposed Sabarimala Greenfield airport, a public hearing on the draft Social Impact Assessment (SIA) report on the project here on Monday saw people raising various objections over the land acquisition plan.
Around 370 persons, mostly from Cheruvally estate and Ozhakkanad in Erumely South village, attended the public hearing at Erumely during the day. Sebastian Kulathunkal, MLA, inaugurated the session, which also witnessed attendance by officials of the Revenue department and the agency that had conducted the SIA.
Though the draft report found that the acquisition of land for the project will directly affect as many as 579 families, several of the participants pointed out that it failed to take into account the complete impact of the project on the families to be displaced. Taking note of the public sentiment, Mariyamma Sunny, president, Erumely panchayat, declared that a special meeting would soon be convened by the local body to discuss the project’s impact.
