Parandur airport: Villagers vexed over land loss, reduced guideline value

The Tamil Nadu government’s recent proposal to set up Chennai’s second airport in Parandur has not gone down well with villagers, who are alleging that the state has reduced the guideline value of land in the region by a third.

The government is planning to acquire 4,563.56 acres of land across 13 villages for the airport. It would need to shift around 1,000 families to other places with appropriate compensation.

Watch: Parandur natives reject govt’s offers

A compensation of three times the price of the land has been promised to those whose land is to be acquired, but villagers said that doesn’t add up when the guideline value has been reduced by a third.

“Before the village was chosen for the airport, the guideline value of 1 cent (435.56 sq ft) of land was ₹22,000. Now, after the announcement, the guideline value of 1 cent has been reduced to just ₹7,000. Making promises that it would pay three times more than the current market value after reducing the original guideline value is ridiculous. We are not going to be carried away with such promises,” Janardhanan, a farmer owning 2 acres at Parandur, told The Federal.

‘Who wants an airport?’

G Subramanian, a farmer in Eganapuram, one of the 13 villages, said that the land parcels to be acquired are fertile lands where farmers are able to produce about 30 sacks of paddy or 80 kg of rice.

Also read: Chennai airport II | How far will Parandur greenfield project fly?

“Within Kanchipuram district, Parandur region cultivates a large amount of rice. While entering the village one can see a large number of sacks filled with paddy arranged and covered with plastic in open spaces. This is because the district has no place to save the paddy procured from farmers. These are going to go waste if there are heavy rains. We have been asking for a storage facility for long; the government’s instead wants an airport here,” he lamented.

“If only we had enough rains and immediate procurement of our produce by the civil supplies department, we would live happily because the revenue from agriculture is more than sufficient to lead our lives. Why should we go after three-times higher compensation?” Janardhanan asked.

The site earmarked for the airport includes 4,563.56 acres of land, of which 3,246.38 acres of land are private patta (registered) land and 1,317.18 acres are government poromboke (government-owned) land.

Out of the 4,563.56 acres, about 2,446.79 acres are wetlands and 799.59 acres are drylands. The 1,317.18 acres of poromboke land consists of waterbody sources such as lakes, streams and ponds.

“The waterbody sources that come under the purview of this project are  about 1,542.94 acres. The government says while about 587.67 acres of waterbodies would be maintained as in the current situation, the remaining 955.27 acres of waterbodies and about 1,458.77 irrigated cultivation lands would be acquired for this project. Agriculture is the only thing we have and it is the only thing we know. If you destroy the waterbody sources, how would farmers survive?” asked Subramanian.

According to preliminary reports, a total of 1,005 families need to be evicted from these 13 villages. This includes 576 families from Most Backward Classes, 329 from Scheduled Castes, 55 families from Scheduled Tribes, 40 from Backward Classes and 5 from other castes.

Alleged illegal registration

Meanwhile, even as the farmers and other villagers bristle over the impending loss of their land, some corporate groups are allegedly making hay. Arappor Iyakkam, a Chennai-based NGO that aims to fight against corruption, in a recent complaint to the state chief secretary, has alleged that Prakash Silks, a leading private silk firm in Kanchipuram, has indulged in illegal registration of land in  square feet instead of acres. The company is said to have been attracted by the increased land value in the backdrop of the greenfield airport announcement, and registered 73 acres of land.

“It is extremely important to immediately register an FIR, carry out an  investigation and cancel the illegal registrations immediately. Otherwise, when the Parandur airport land acquisition happens, the fraud done by the registration department public servants in collusion with the company will result in a loss of more than ₹150 crore to the state government,” said the complaint.

The Federal tried to reach out to Prakash Silks, but there was no response. The government officials handling the land deals are restrained from commenting. The police also did not respond.

‘Political nexus saved Pannur’

The villagers, meanwhile, continue to fight for their land. Though the government has promised that those who lose their land would be given 5 cents land per family besides monetary compensation, the villagers are reluctant to give up their land.

“Does this government want us to become displaced and refugees in our own villages?” asked Mythili, an agricultural labourer in Eganapuram village.

She sought to know whether the government would disclose the reason for changing the proposed airport site from Pannur to Parandur. The site at Pannur had no agricultural land.

“We heard that some political leaders and their families, film stars and realtors invested hugely in the lands at Pannur,” Mythili alleged. “There the guideline value is very high. It becomes difficult for the government to carry out land acquisition there. So they have reduced the guideline values here and thought that acquiring lands from us is easier. But we will prove them wrong.”

The government has promised employment to locals once the region surrounding the airport is developed as an industrial and economic zone. But the villagers are sceptical. None of their children got jobs in the companies that were set up earlier in nearby regions in the last many years, they pointed out.