Times of India: Surat: Saturday, June 09, 2018.
The Central
Vigilance Commission (CVC) on a complaint by a Right To Information (RTI)
activist has asked the chief secretary, Gujarat Government, to take necessary
action into illegal construction of 18 residential buildings which now obstruct
the runway path of Surat airport.
RTI activist
Sanjay Ezhawa had in April written to CVC demanding an inquiry against the
central and state government authorities, including the Surat Municipal
Corporation (SMC), for alleged irregularities that facilitated the construction
of 18 residential buildings in violation of the terms and conditions of no
objection certificate (NOC) issued by the AAI.
In the
letter, he had pointed out that the RTI data given by SMC and AAI revealed that
18 residential buildings towards Vesu side of the runway at Surat airport were
obstructing the landing of aircraft. The builders and architects provided
proper data to all the authorities, including AAI for obtaining NOCs, but the
coordinates at the time of obtaining NOCs were different from the original
sites that were surveyed in 2017.
The NOCs of
the 18 projects were issued between 2007 and 2013. The AAI did the area
inspection in 2007 and 2017. The illegal construction of the buildings was
taken up in the gap of 10 years when no survey was done.
As per the
terms and conditions of the NOC, if the builders, developers or architects
provided wrong information, the NOC stood cancelled and the structures needed
to be demolished.
“The CVC has
asked the chief secretary through the letter dated May 17 to carry out investigation
into the issue of building height of 18 residential properties which obstruct
the runway path. I hope that the chief secretary will carry out a free and fair
probe for the development of Surat airport,” Ezhawa said.