CPI(M) State secretary P. Shanmugam.

| Photo Credit: M. SRINATH

Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) State secretary P. Shanmugam on Monday welcomed Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay’s announcement in the Assembly that the Parandur airport project would be dropped.Speaking to journalists at Mayiladuthurai, Mr. Shanmugam said the proposed airport project would have destroyed 13 lakes and over 3,000 acres of wetlands in that area. People and farmers of Parandur had been consistently staging protests against the airport project.“The CPI(M) welcomes the scrapping of the project and the announcement that an alternative site would be chosen for the new airport. The views of the general public of the area concerned should be ascertained while selecting the alternative site,” Mr. Shanmugam said, adding that lands acquired for the proposed airport project should be handed over to the farmers.On the vexed Cauvery issue, he said Mr. Vijay should take a delegation of MPs of various parties of Tamil Nadu and leaders of all parties to New Delhi and meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to exert pressure on him to ensure that the State got its due share of Cauvery water as per the Supreme Court verdict.Mr. Shanmugam said Tamil Nadu had only received excess water and not the share that was due to it from Karnataka, which had not adhered to the apex court verdict. The CPI(M) and other parties had been constantly urging the Chief Minister to convene an all-party meeting on the Cauvery issue to convey to the people about the united view of the State. However, it was not known as to why Mr. Vijay had not convened an all-party meeting till now, Mr. Shanmugam said.Stating that kuruvai cultivation was severely affected due to the water shortage, he said the party wanted the State government to provide ₹15,000 as compensation per acre for the affected farmers. The recent hike in sugar price was another blow to the common man, he said, and urged the Central and the State governments to take necessary steps to lower the price of sugar. Published - August 24, 2026 11:37 pm IST