SHILLONG, Nov 22 - Meghalaya High Court has taken a rather grim view of the State bureaucracy in undertaking the expansion project of Umroi Airport.
A full bench of the High Court consisting of Chief Justice Uma Nath Singh, Justice SR Sen and Justice T Nandakumar Singh during a hearing on Thursday also directed the Chief Secretary PBO Warjri to be present in the Court for the next hearing on Tuesday.
While lauding the Defence and Airport authorities for their cooperation in taking the project forward, the Court said the Defence authority is �ready to hand over 32 acres of land� in exchange of similar plot of land from the State Government in some other locations.
Terming the expansion of the airport as of �great strategic importance from defence point of view,� the Bench said the expansion project is lying pending from 1961 �even after allocation and investment of a huge public fund.�
�Our great disappointment over the lukewarm attitude of State bureaucracy which rather seems to be interested in impeding the progress of the project and to foil the success of the project,� the Court observed.
The Court later directed Chief Secretary to file a sworn personal affidavit with proposals for transfer of State land or acquired land to the Ministry of Defence in exchange of the Defence land while directing him to be present in the Court during the next hearing.
