Villagers opposing moves to acquire their land for the airport said the heavy police deployment is harassment.
Published Sep 03, 2022 | 1:00 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 03, 2022 | 1:00 PM
A view of Chennai airport. Land is being acquired in and around Parandur village, 66 km away, for the city's second airport. (Supplied)
It seems to be the season of unrest for rural communities in southern India as proposed industrial and developmental projects threaten their livelihoods or the environment.
In Kerala, the fishing community near capital Thiruvananthapuram has in recent weeks intensified its opposition to a deep-sea port being developed by the Adani group at Vizhinjam; and in Karnataka farmers in Bengaluru Rural district are, for the past five months, been opposing the state acquisition of their land for an industrial project.
And now, a farmers’ protest has broken out in Tamil Nadu.
Discontent is brewing in the villages in Kanchipuram district over the state government’s move to build a second airport for Chennai on their land.
The opposition to the state’s plan has not snowballed into violence, but the administration is taking no chances.
The Kanchipuram police have set up checkpoints at Parandur village, some 66 km from the state capital, and begun monitoring its residents.
They also clamped Section 30(2) in the Police Act 1861 till 7 September. Under this section, prior police permission is required to hold meetings, processions and other events.
The project envisages two runways and the usual infrastructure such as terminal buildings, taxiways, aprons, cargo terminals, etc., to be built on an estimated outlay of ₹20,000 crore. On completion, it will handle about 100 million (10 crore) passengers annually.
But for it to materialise, farmland spread across 13 villages in Kanchipuram district — Parandur among them — will have to be acquired.
All 13 villagers opposed the new airport in a meeting with MSME Minister TM Anbarasan, Industries Minister Thangam Thennarasu and PWD Minister EV Velu. (Supplied)
At a public meeting with residents of the affected villages, on 16 August, in the Kanchipuram District Collector’s office, the state government — represented by MSME Minister TM Anbarasan, Industries Minister Thangam Thennarasu and PWD Minister EV Velu — tried to assure them of a fair compensation for their land, including jobs. The villagers were also promised they would not be harassed.
The protestors are not convinced. “We cannot give away our 3,500 acres of land for compensation by the government,” Subramaniam told South First.
“We are strongly opposed to the proposed project but we are not sure what the government is planning. Whatever it may be, we will protest and will not give away any land.”
Despite their assurance, media reports quote locals as saying that the district administration has about 20-25 residents of Parandu under the radar for opposing the project.
In fact, according to Parandur resident Manikandan, the police are phoning the villagers to tell them not to speak to “outsiders”, who include visiting journalists and social activists.
“I don’t know the exact date and time, but police officials called some of my neighbours, who I can’t name, on the phone and inquired about the people we meet and those who enter the village,” Manikandan told South First.
“They also asked us not to protest and remain silent,” he claimed.
Over the past few days, police patrolling too seems to have been intensified in and around Parandur, with checkpoints manned by policemen, in mufti and uniform, put up at entry and exit points. Similar checkpoints have appeared at a few other villages in the area as well.
Vehicles entering these villages are checked and their occupants questioned at these points.
When questioned by South First about it, Kanchipuram police chief M Sudhakar said it was “in the interest of general law and order”.
He, however, refused to answer when asked about his officers making phone calls to Parandur residents.
A local police constable played down the police deployment. “It is for routine checking,” he said.
But on 30 August, Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) workers were detained and taken into preventive custody when they tried to enter Parandur and meet its residents.
Two days earlier, the police detained two social and environmental activists, Palaniappan and Gunasekara Dharamaraja, who had been invited to Parandur by the residents.
Police installed new check posts in the villages of Ekanapuram, Idayarapakkam, Parandur, etc. (Supplied)
“The police told us not to visit the village or to protest,” Palaniappan told South First. “We told them the police had the right to order us what should be done.”
Palaniappan also claimed the police had asked them to give a written assurance that they would not return to Parandur village and meet the farmers anymore.
“We refused to do so. We left the station after spending a few hours there,” he said.
Section 30(2) was clamped soon after this. The checkpoints and invoking of the Police Act have upset the villagers.
Lakshmanan, 58, a Parandur resident, said he asked his daughter and son-in-law, who live elsewhere, not to visit him now. “I fear anything can happen anytime with all these policemen around,” he said.
Another resident, Subramaniam, 51, said even though no one has stopped anyone from entering or exiting Parandur, the checkpoints themselves were harassment.
“We haven’t done anything wrong,” he said. “We only want to save our lands.”
