DECCAN HERALD

Monday, August 3, 1998

The Vimana Nildhana Vistharana Virodhi Samithi, the action committee fighting against the proposed expansion of the Mangalore airport, has alleged that Mangalore Assistant Commissioner (Land Acquisition) Nagappa has tampered with the land records belonging to the oustees` families of the project by transferring their ownership to the Airport Authority of India.

The signatories of the statement include samithi President Ronald D'Souza, Secretary Arthur Pereira, DSS leader M Deva Das, Mr Leo F Saldhana of the Bangalore-based Environment Support Group, Mr G I Shaikabba and Mr Murali.

The signatories expressed the fear that the ''programme of most brutal eviction`` awaits the 28 families of the Adyapady, Malavur and Kolambe villages of Mangalore taluk, which remind them of the ''brutal" eviction of the MRPL project evacuees.

DELEGATION: They said a delegation, led by Bantwal MLA Ramanath Rai, met Revenue minister B Somashekhar on Friday to lodge their strong protests against the tampering of land records by Mr Nagappa. ''Mr Somashekhar was unaware of the action and he assured us to immediately look into the matter and also visit the villages to personally familiarise with the issue," they added.

The signatories pointed out that the Bajpe airport expansion had been challenged in the Karnataka High Court in a public interest litigation. ''The project completely violates all the design and safety standards developed by the Bureau of Indian Standards Act. The most ludicrous instance of such planning is the proposed HPCL pipeline crossing the alignment for the proposed runway," they said.