The Kerala High Court on Thursday termed the State Government a failure for the apathy it was showing for acquiring land for the development of national highways even when it was showing great interest in acquiring land for private projects like the Greenfield international airport project at Aranmula in Pathanamthitta district.
The Court also directed the Government to submit an affidavit explaining its position on the controversial private airport project of Aranmula, the work of which had already been stopped on the order of the National Green Tribunal, even as Chief Minister Oommen Chandy reiterated his Government's determination to support the project.
While considering a batch of petitions pertaining to the development of national highways in the State, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Manjula Chellur orally criticised the Government by saying that it should show interest in doing things for projects of public interest also and not just for those developed with private capital.
Terming the Government a failure in matters related to national highways development, the bench asked why the speed with which it had acquired land for the airport project at Aranmula and had passed orders sanctioning Plus II course for several schools the other day was not seen in the case of acquiring land for NH development.
The Court reminded the Government that it had the power to issue strict orders for acquisition of land. It asked the Government how it could decide that land could not be acquired to develop 60-metre wide national highways. The Court had the power to fix the width of national highways as 60 metres, it said
Expressing suspicion that there was perhaps a move to fix the NH width as 30 metres, the bench also asked the Chief Secretary to submit an affidavit. The Government had earlier told the Court that land would be acquired for 45-metre-wide national highways in places where this was possible and the width of the roads would be 30 metres where acquisition of land was difficult.
Public Works Minister VK Ibrahim Kunju had told the State Assembly that the Government had been able to acquire only a few hectares of land in the past 13 years for development of roads. He had also said that the Government's position was that national highways should be developed with 45-metres width as per the stipulation of the Centre.
The Court asked the Government to submit an affidavit before August 6 explaining its position on the Aranmula airport project which had been mired in controversies since its inception. The Court said it would settle the case, based on petitions questioning the Government's stake in the project and acquisition of land, if it did not submit the affidavit within the stipulated period.
Petitioner P Prasad, Pathanamthitta district secretary of the CPI, submitted before the court a report of the CAG which found the Government's ten-percent stake in the airport project being promoted by the private group, KGS, as questionable. The court considered this and the petition demanding restoration of the wetlands and rice fields that had been land-filled for the project.
However, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy reiterated his Government's determination to make the project a reality by telling the State Assembly on Thursday that the Government would support the project if the KGS Group earned the required environmental clearance though it would not implead in the cases the company had been facing in the Court.
Replying to a submission from CPI(M) member MA Baby demanding an explanation over a statement by Finance Minister KM Mani favouring the project, Chandy said that those who were supporting the opposition to the project should remember that the people of Pathanamthitta had elected to the lok Sabha the Congress candidate, Anto Antony, who had favoured it.