Gaggal residents oppose expansion of airport

Dharamsala, May 20

Residents of Gaggal here today held a protest rally against the proposed expansion of the local airport. Hundreds of people from Gaggal and its surrounding areas, whose land is likely to be acquired for the project, gathered here early in the morning and marched till the main gate of the airport.

The protesters alleged that hundreds of families would be uprooted from fertile land to be acquired for the expansion of the airport. “We will be uprooted for the second time. Initially, we were displaced for the creation of the Pong Dam lake. We then settled in Gaggal area and now we fear being uprooted again,” they said.

The Congress government is aggressively pursuing the project. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu is supporting the expansion of the airport “because it will boost tourism in Kangra and its surrounding regions”. “The government has made a provision of Rs 2,000 crore in the current financial year for the airport expansion project and the budget will largely be used for the acquisition of land,” the sources said.

They said that the Kangra district administration had sent a proposal to the government for the acquisition of 105 acres, including 40 acres of government land, for the project.