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With the protests against the proposed high-speed rail project intensifying in Kerala, K Rail authorities have decided to go slow and temporarily halt the survey pole-laying across the state.
At least six districts in the state witnessed fierce resistance for more than a week after women, children and the elderly blocked roads and removed survey stones. The affected people thwarted all attempts to lay stones ignoring the heavy police presence. The Opposition Congress and BJP workers also clashed with the police at many places. A senior official of the Kerala Rail Development Corporation, nodal agency for the project, said stone-laying was temporarily halted to avoid provocation. He said the government did not give any directive in this matter.
But opposition leader VD Satheesan said it was a diversionary tactic and the ruling CPI (M) was buying time till the party meet, slated for the first week of April in north Kerala’s Kannur. “The government can’t take the steam out by resorting to such tactics. All of a sudden the ruling party developed a kind of aversion towards agitations and dubbed them as extremist movements. We will continue our struggle till the project is shelved,” he said in Malappuram.
However CPI(M) leaders maintained that the ongoing strike was anti-people and it was staged-managed by people who are against development of the state. “What the state is witnessing is an anti-people movement. A group of hooligans are behind it and the government will go ahead with the project,” said party leader A Vijayaraghavan in Delhi.
The junior alliance partner Communist Party of India (CPI), however, said the government should take the affected people into confidence first. “We can’t say it is an anti-people movement. We have to redress concerns of the affected people first,” said party joint secretary Prakash Babu. The CPI was uneasy with the big budget project since it was conceived a couple of years ago.
After meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan was upbeat and said the PM was positive and he expected a green signal soon. But the BJP said the CM was misleading people. “The CM is fooling people. Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav told parliament on Thursday that the financial viability of the project is in question and sanction for it cannot be accorded without getting a clear picture of technical and environmental issues,” said party state president K Surendran.
Opposition parties and a section of environmentalists have been opposing the ₹63,941 crore K Rail project, which is expected to reduce travelling time from north to south of the state to four hours from present 12 hours, saying it was unscientific and impractical and will pose a huge financial burden on the state. But the ruling front insists that it will be a game-changer and attract investment and reduce carbon emissions considerably. The state has announced that it will be carbon-neutral by 2050.
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