Social activist Medha Patkar met residents affected by the Chennai airport expansion project in Manapakkam here on Wednesday.

After meeting them at a gathering, she said the State government must denotify the land acquired from the residents for airport expansion work, since the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has said that some of the allotted land may not be needed.

“Though experts have said so much of land is not required, the denotification process must not take 17 months. It is the question of undoing the wrong. Since it is prime land, no one including the State, which is also becoming one of the biggest land owners in India today, would like to let go of its possession,” she said.

In October 2007, the State government notified 1,069.99 acres of land in five villages — Manapakkam, Kolapakkam, Tharapakkam and Kovur — to build a parallel runway for the Chennai airport. But in November 2011, AAI issued a letter to the government saying that a parallel runway may not be needed, as suggested by International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), and that the some of the earmarked land can be denotified.

Ms. Patkar plans to meet the Chief Secretary and raise the issue with her.

web:- http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/medha-tn-must-denotify-…