Height of Land Acquisition Terror in West Bengal

May 11, 2007	(4 votes, average: 3.5 out of 5)  Loading ...
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A technical exercise to fine tune the instrument landing system (ILS) installed at Kolkata airport to ensure smooth operations of flight in low visibility, sparked terror at Deganga and Amdanga 30 km away.

A small aircraft which was repeatedly flying over the area at a low altitude perplexed the villagers, giving them an obscure idea that industrialists were on board the aircraft to search for land. At stake was their rich, which the government is planning to acquire for the development of the Barasat-Raichak Expressway.  The violence that followed was unexpected.

When the aircraft returned on Thursday morning, panic turned into anguish with villagers taking to the streets in protest. The message was loud and clear that people were rejecting government plans of development at the cost of their land.

On being informed of the violence, the district magistrate Prabhat Kumar Mishra was stunned and claimed to have no prior information about such an aerial survey.  Since a low-flying plane had been repeatedly sighted, the DM had words with the state Secretariat but drew a blank.

He then contacted officials at Netaji Subash Chandra Bose International Airport. The authorities informed him about Dornier carrying out sorties to fine tune the ILS.

The flights were being conducted to check the accuracy of the instrument landings system and calibrate the glide slope that provide the vertical coordinates over the runaway to allow pilots to land in low visibility conditions.

News Published Under:   Kolkata |

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