Thiruvananthapuram: The NDA government's economic survey has referred to a stalled airport project in Kerala as a live one, shocking the local Sangh parivar that sees its success in blocking the plan as a feather in its cap.
The Sangh's efforts had led to the National Green Tribunal quashing the previous UPA government's environmental clearance to the private airport project at Aranmula, a Unesco Global Heritage Village in Pathanamthitta district, last summer. The Supreme Court later upheld the ruling.
An embarrassed state BJP has sought to cap the latest controversy by terming the economic survey citation a technical error. But a follow-up statement by the private promoter asserting the airport would be built has further enraged the project's Sangh opponents.
"We have requested finance minister Arun Jaitley to drop the remarks (on the project) from the 2014-15 survey report," said a statement from Kummanan Rajasekharan, senior Sangh pracharak and patron of the Aranmula Heritage Village Protection Council.
It referred to the green tribunal and court rulings to add: "(The) officials who prepared the report did not do so after examining all the papers. Hence the remarks... are unnecessary and irrelevant."
The tribunal blow to the project had handed the Sangh its first big victory in Kerala on the environment front, till then a Left preserve.
02/03/15 Ananthakrishnan G./Telegraph
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The Sangh's efforts had led to the National Green Tribunal quashing the previous UPA government's environmental clearance to the private airport project at Aranmula, a Unesco Global Heritage Village in Pathanamthitta district, last summer. The Supreme Court later upheld the ruling.
An embarrassed state BJP has sought to cap the latest controversy by terming the economic survey citation a technical error. But a follow-up statement by the private promoter asserting the airport would be built has further enraged the project's Sangh opponents.
"We have requested finance minister Arun Jaitley to drop the remarks (on the project) from the 2014-15 survey report," said a statement from Kummanan Rajasekharan, senior Sangh pracharak and patron of the Aranmula Heritage Village Protection Council.
It referred to the green tribunal and court rulings to add: "(The) officials who prepared the report did not do so after examining all the papers. Hence the remarks... are unnecessary and irrelevant."
The tribunal blow to the project had handed the Sangh its first big victory in Kerala on the environment front, till then a Left preserve.
02/03/15 Ananthakrishnan G./Telegraph
