Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], March 18 (ANI): Hours after a protest erupted in Ernakulam, Kottayam and Kozhikode districts against the Kerala government’s proposed SilverLine semi high-speed rail project, Union Minister of State V Muraleedharan said that BJP will not allow state government to implement an anti-people project by force.
Local residents, including women and children on Friday, disrupted the laying of the stones in the land identified for the project in Kallai in Kozhikode district and Mamala near Thiruvankulam in Ernakulam district. Reportedly, women were protesting with kerosene in their hands and were removed by the police force in the said incident. Addressing a press conference today, V. Muraleedharan said, “What is going on in the name of SilverLine project displays atrocities against women. State Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is behaving like a quiet monocrat.” “It’s shameful that in a state where so many slogans for gender equality are witnessed, brutal police atrocities are going against women (protesters) in the name of K-Rail. BJP will not allow the government to implement an anti-people project by force,” he added.
Kerala Police today detained people protesting against the land acquisition for the SilverLine semi-high speed rail (K-Rail) project. The residents of Madampally near Changanassery in Kottayam started a protest after the officials of the K-Rail project came to demarcate land and to lay survey stones for the SilverLine project.
Following this, workers of BJP and Congress reached the spot and started raising slogans against the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government. After the people of Madampally were detained for agitating against the K-Rail project, Opposition leaders boycotted the Kerala Assembly session and staged a protest.
VD Satheesan, Leader of Opposition (LoP), said, “We have boycotted the Assembly session in the evening because of the ongoing agitation against the K-Rail project at Changanassery. Police brutally attacked the people, including women and children. Two days ago, we had raised the issue on the floor of the Assembly and the CM had assured that there won’t be police highhandedness against the protestors.”
He added, “Entire Kerala is protesting against the SilverLine project. The project will adversely impact the environment because the state is an ecologically fragile place. The government did not carry out any geological or location surveys. The Railway Minister in Parliament had said that they had given in-principle approval for the draft proposal for the project and not for the construction. The state government acquiring the land without the approval of the Ministry of Railways.”
The Kerala government’s ambitious Silverline project, which is expected to reduce travel time from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod to around four hours, is being opposed by the opposition Congress-led UDF, which has been alleging that it was “unscientific and impractical” and will put a huge financial burden on the state. (ANI)
