New Delhi: The controversy over hundreds of tea garden workers losing livelihoods after the Assam government bulldozed tea bushes over a plan to build an airport has taken a fresh turn with the Union government saying it has not received ‘any formal proposal’ from the Assam government on the project.
On May 11, the Assam government bulldozed huge tracts of standing tea bushes in an estate near Silchar in the Barak Valley to hand over the land to the Union government for the construction of a greenfield airport. About 150 bulldozers and excavators had cleared the site, spanning 2,600 bighas of land. In the process, about three million tea bushes were uprooted. Around 1,900 workers became at risk of losing their job.
On July 28, however, the Union civil aviation ministry categorically stated in parliament that it has so far not received “any formal proposal” from the state government on the project.
When the bulldozing took place in May, media outlets had noted that the proposed airport had found no mention in the list of 21 greenfield airports that had received ‘in-principle’ approval from the Union government thus far.
The contention was based on a written reply by the ministry at the Lok Sabha on March 17, 2022, providing a list of such airports that had received in-principle approval in the last three years.
However, on July 28, in a written reply to Congress MP from Assam, Pradyut Bordoloi, the Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia stated that the project has received ‘in-principle approval of the ministry.’
This also cleared the air over who had shortlisted the particular site in the Lalbagh division of Silchar for the airport.
When the controversy had unfolded in the state, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters that his government would “proceeded further (to clear the area of the tea bushes and take over the land) only after the AAI identified Doloo Tea Estate as the best site in the area for the proposed Greenfield airport”.
Police deployed in Silchar’s Doloo Tea Estate, Assam, on May 11 to clear land for a green field airport. Photo: Special arrangement.
Categorically stating that the land of the tea estate was shortlisted by the state government for the project, the Minister, in his reply, added that as per the procedure based on the government’s Greenfield Airports Policy, 2008, the project proponent or the state government willing to establish the airport “is required to send a proposal to the Ministry” in a prescribed format available at www.civilaviation.gov.in “for a two-stage process i.e. ‘site clearance’ followed by in-principle approval.”
The reply said the Airports Authority of India (AAI) carried out the pre-feasibility study in January 2020 for three sites identified by Assam government to develop the greenfield airport at Silchar. “Out of it, the Doloo site was found to be the most suitable one.”
“A report along with a master plan indicating land requirement of 870 acres for A-321 type aircraft operations in all weather conditions has been sent to government of Assam by AAI. Pursuant to this report, government of Assam has acquired land for developing the greenfield airport at Doloo (Silchar),” the minister’s reply in the Lok Sabha said.
“Based on the AAI report, the state government has acquired the land but the Ministry has so far not received any formal proposal” to build the project.
Speaking to The Wire, Congress MP Bordoloi highlighted that the Ministry has so far not received any formal proposal to set up the airport even though it had cleared the site and took possession of the land.
Reply to my question in the LS on the proposed airport in Silchar by clearing the Doloo tea estate 👇No formal proposal received by Union Govt. So on what basis was an eviction drive ordered by Assam Govt? Will the Govt consult with workers whose livelihoods will be affected? pic.twitter.com/t7rQ5Uu1Ua
— Pradyut Bordoloi (@pradyutbordoloi) July 28, 2022
“The Union government’s reply has made it clear that the state government has some ulterior motive behind the eviction. The uprooted and vacated tea estate land, displacing hundreds of workers and their families would eventually be gobbled by some cronies of the government,” the MP from Nagaon said.
In the wake of the state government’s action in May, Congress deputy leader of opposition and MLA from Karimganj North in the Barak valley, Kamalakhya Dey Purukayestha had alleged that the eviction was triggered by personal interests of local MPs and MLAs of the BJP.
“Is there no other place other than Doloo to build the airport? There was a tea estate named Kharail tea estate, adjoining Doloo, which is almost non-functioning. The management of the tea estate had shown interest in handing over their land to build the airport. But Silchar’s DC, along with some MPs and MLAs of the ruling party rejected this site saying it doesn’t have feasibility,” he said while addressing the media.
He further alleged that there was a huge “scam” going on to sell off the evicted tea plants to a Kolkata-based company at a lucrative price.