On December 4, during the ongoing winter session of the Parliament, Dr. Santanu Sen is a recognised figure in India’s medical and political fields, raised a question regarding land acquired by the government for airports. Sen is a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha from the All-India Trinamool Congress party. Dr. Santanu Sen raised questions about the conditions of the people who were displaced due to the land acquisition for airports in the past three years. He also sought answers regarding the amount of funds spent on land acquisition and the details of the actual amount acquired by the government to keep a check on the activities performed by the government.
Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (BJP), union minister for civil aviation, responded to the questions by providing details of the amount of land acquired by Government for building airports in last three years. As per the data provided, a total of 1944.4364 acres of land had been acquired for building airports in the last three years.
The minister also detailed the funds allocated and spent on land acquisition for building airports in last three years. As provided in the reply, the Rajya Sabha was apprised that out of the total land of 71.11 acres provided by UT of Andaman & Nicobar for Port Blair Airport, Rs. 12.47 crores have been paid for 1.55 acres of land to the UT Administration for installation of glide path. In Bagdogra, out of the total airport land of 130 acres, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) paid Rs. 23.06 crores as compensation to the existing tea estates for acquiring 98.72 acres of land provided by the State Government of West Bengal. For Pakyong Airport, out of the total land area of 210.14 acres, AAI paid a compensation of Rs.10.18 crores for an area of 7.39 acres, as a compensation for acquisition of private land for construction of the reinforced earth retaining walls. At Hindon Airport, out of the total land of 10.39 acres made available by State Government of Uttar Pradesh, AAI has paid Rs.39.69 crores for a land of 5.44 acres.
It is crucial to note here that the data provided by the ministries fail to provide the amount of money that has been paid by them for the whole land. As can be deduced, the compensation paid is only for a part of the whole required land. Since the data does not provide the total funds allocated, the total amount spend on land acquisition and compensation cannot be determined. By providing us with only the amount paid for 4 airports, namely Port Balir, Bagdogra, Pakyong and Hindon airport, the full amount paid for acquisition of 1955.4364 acres cannot be pointed. Thus, it can only deciphered that they the union has paid 85.4 crores for acquiring 113.1 acres of land due to various reasons, which are installation of glide path, compensation to the existing tea estates and compensation for acquisition of private land for construction of the Reinforced Earth Retaining walls.
Notably, in the case of Kohlapur, Maharashtra, for which forest land of 27 acres was acquired by AAI, no details have been provided in the answer which specify the funds paid.
The table provided in the reply to the question is as follows:
| Details of land acquired by AAI during last 03 years | |||
| State/UT | Name of Airport | Area (in acres) | Year of Acquisition |
| Andhra Pradesh | Kadapa | 47.53 | 2022 |
| Arunachal Pradesh | Hollongi (Greenfield Airport) | 9.42 | 2021 |
| 17.91 | 2022 | ||
| Dibrugarh | 70.11 | 2022 | |
| Assam | Jorhat | 23.52 | 2022 |
| Lilabari | 84.00 | 2021 | |
| Bihar | Darbhanga | 76.40 | 2023 |
| Chhattisgarh | Raipur | 20.80 | 2022 |
| Jammu & Kashmir | Jammu | 121.75 | 2021 |
| Jharkhand | Ranchi** | 301.69 | 2023 |
| Madhya Pradesh | Gwalior** | 143.20 | 2021 |
| Maharashtra | Kolhapur # | 27.01 | 2020 |
| Odisha | Bhubaneswar | 1.18 | 2022 |
| Andaman & Nicobar | Port Blair | 1.55 | 2023 |
| Sikkim | Pakyong (Greenfield Airport) | 7.39 | 2021 |
|
Tamil Nadu | Chennai | 2.76 | 2021 |
| 30.57 | 2022 | ||
| Madurai | 460.17 | 2020 | |
| 14.75 | 2021 | ||
| 0.0064 | 2022 | ||
| Trichy | 1.89 | 2021 | |
| 31.20 | 2022 | ||
| 27.61 | 2023 | ||
| Uttar Pradesh | Ayodhya** | 317.86 | 2022 |
| Hindon | 5.44 | 2023 | |
| West Bengal | Bagdogra | 98.72 | 2022 |
*Land Acquired from Defence (IAF).
** On lease basis on nominal rate. # Forest Land handed over to AAI.
The questions put forth by Sen concerning the displacement of the people due to acquiring their land and the compensation provided to the, the union minister dodged the question by saying that the concerned State Government/Union Territory (UT) Administration for development/expansion of airports owned by the AAI is responsible for the same. Hiding behind the above justification, the Ministry of Civil Aviation informed the Parliament that it did not maintain any data in this regard either for AAI Airports or Private Airports.
The complete answer can be viewed here:
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