Villagers stage protest against acquisition of land for ‘Space Park’ near Udangudi

Police detained 203 persons who protested on Tuesday against acquisition of land for the proposed ‘Space Park’ near Udangudi.

As the State government’s TIDCO has proposed to establish the ‘Space Park’ near the upcoming Kulasekarapattinam spaceport of Indian Space Research Organisation to facilitate the ancillary units, 1,200 acres of land are being acquired for this venture at 10 villages, including Athiyakurichi, Madhavankurichi, Venkatramanujapuram and Sirunadarkudiyiruppu. A team with four tahsildars, who are led by the District Revenue Officer, is taking care of land acquisition process.

Opposing the acquisition of cultivable lands for the Space Park, agriculturists from Athiyakurichi staged a walkout from the farmers’ grievances redress meet held at the Collectorate on January 23. As a mark of strengthening their agitation further, over 200 farmers gathered at Udangudi Bazaar on Tuesday and raised slogans against the Tamil Nadu government, saying that the acquisition of land for the Space Park would affect their livelihood.

As the agitation was organised without permission, the police detained 203 persons, including 111 women, who were released in the evening.