Vimana Nildhana Vistharana
Virodhi Samithi
Adyapady
village, Mangalore Taluk, Dakshina Kannada 574 142
Tel: 0824-752081/752623
Press Release
12
January 1998
High
Court Stays Proposed New Mangalore Airport
Petitioners: Arthur Pereira and others
Represented by: Mr. C. B. Sreenivasan, Advocate
Mr.
Sanath Kumar Shetty, Advocate
Mr.
Shivaram Bhat O., Advocate
Respondents: Union of India represented by
Director General of Civil
Aviation and others
The Division Bench
comprising of Mr. Justice Ashok Bhan and Mr. Justice Mohammed Anwar of the High
Court of Karnataka ordered issue of notice
to the respondents in writ petition No.
37681/1997 in which the petitioners have challenged the Government’s proposal
to develop a new airport near Mangalore and granted stay on the project as an
interim relief.
The writ petition
brings to focus the decade long resistance of the people of Malavoor, Adyapady
and Kolambe villages where over 200 acres of land is being acquired for the
purpose. The affected communities have repeatedly represented to the various
authorities that the said project is totally unjustified from various points of
view, particularly the following:
·
That the
location is highly unsafe for the development of an airport as the same is on a
very high range of hills with about 100 metres drop all around. Given that the existing Bajpe airport has
been considered one of the most dangerous in the world, the least one could
have expected from the Government is that the new airport would not be located
in an equally, if not more, dangerous location. In fact, some years ago the Bajpe airport witnessed a serious
accident as an Avro aircraft overran the runway and toppled over the cliff,
with the passengers having a miraculous escape.
·
That the
project is being developed with absolutely no adherence to the due process of
the law, i.e., without conducting the mandatory Public Hearing, without conducting an Environment and Social Impact
Assessment, in violation of the land use plan of the Comprehensive Development
Plan for Greater Mangalore, and fundamentally violating significant safeguards
recommended by the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, especially the National
Building Code, and the International Civil Aviation Standards and
Recommendations.
·
The project
authorities have not even conducted the most basic of studies: techno-economic
feasibility report for the project.
·
The
development of the airport at the present location will displace over 208
families, most of whom are poor and a significant number are Dalits who have
been provided Government settlements following their rescue from previous
slavery and persecution. Further, several religious monuments and places would
be destroyed including a church, two mosques, two boothasthanas, two community
halls, and two graveyards.
Under the
leadership of the Vimana Nildhana
Vistharana Virodhi Samithi, the
project communities have made tens of representations to the various
authorities right from the level of the District Commissioner all the way to
the Civil Aviation Minister and the Director General of Civil Aviation. But beyond some preliminary, vague,
insensitive and misguding responses, none of the authorities have even
addressed the key technical issues that have been raised, or for that matter
appreciated the enormous and adverse social and environmental impacts the
project would unnecessarily cause.
In such a
situation, the petitioners, several of whom have been campaigning against the
project in the public interest, have been constrained to seek remedy from the
Judiciary so that the communities are not unnecessarily dispossessed, public
resources wasted and lives of air travelers unnecessarily put at risk merely
because of the callousness of the Government and the vested interests of a few.
Arthur Pereira
First
Petitioner and
for Vimana
Nildhana Vistharana Virodhi Samithi
Bangalore address for information:
Environment Support Group
36, Reservoir Road
Basavanagudi
Bangalore 560 004
Tel: 6676289