Thiruvananthapuram : An all-party meet convened by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday took a firm stand against Centre’s decision to lease out operations and supervision of Thiruvananthapuram airport to the Adani Group with BJP being the sole dissenter to the resolve. The meeting decided to contest the privatisation attempt legally, table a resolution in the State Assembly against it, and stand united on the issue.
At the meeting, CM spoke of the government proposal stated in the letters to the Centre earlier, asking for the airport’s operations and supervision to be entrusted to Special Vehicle - a body the state holds major stake in. The Chief Minister had written to the Aviation Ministry twice and to the Prime Minister twice. There is overwhelming sentiment across the state to have airports as part of the governmental system and political voices are united on the demand, except for local BJP, which will hopefully come around, up on after a thorough understanding of consequences the intended privatisation, said CM.
At the meeting, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala announced full backing for all decisions towards having state rights over the airport, including the impending resolution in the Assembly for the purpose, he said. Leaders across parties appreciated call for the meeting to discuss an issue that holds serious implications for the state.
The State Assembly’s detailed stand on the matter will be arrived at with joint discussions between the Speaker and Opposition leader, CM said. Incidentally, the Assembly will meet on 24 August for one day in this regard.
Those is attendance at the virtual meeting included MV Govindan(CPIM), Thampanoor Ravi(Congress A), Minister E Chandrashekharan (CPIM), C Divakaran (CPIM), PK Kunhalikutty(Muslim League), Minister Ramachandran Kadanapalli(Congress S), CK Nanu(Janta Dal S), PJ Joseph(Kerala Congress), TP Pitambaran(NCP), Sheikh P Harris(Lokthantra Janata Dal), A.A. Azeez(RSP), George Kurien(BJP), Manoj Kumar (Kerala Congress) and PC George.
