Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K. Sudharakan has said the party will formally join the ongoing protests against the semi-high-speed railway (SilverLine) project across the State from Monday. On Sunday, he visited the areas in Kallai in Kozhikode district which witnessed stiff resistance to efforts by officials to lay survey stones ahead of launching the project.
“I was ridiculed initially when I proposed uprooting of the survey stones. But now people are doing it as a mark of protest. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan seems unable to understand the anguish of these people. Even CPI(M) supporters are against it. On Monday, we will officially join those who oppose the project,” he said. Mr. Sudhakaran said the SilverLine project would not be implemented here even if the Congress had not opposed it.
‘Residents beaten up’
The officials had laid survey stones in three houses near the Kallai railway station when the local people started protesting. It intensified with the involvement of anti-K-Rail activists. The survey procedures were stalled for some time due to protest, but it was resumed after more police force arrived. Local residents, including women, were allegedly beaten up during the melee.
Mr. Sudhakaran expressed solidarity with the local residents, saying their resistance to the project was a model to others who were opposing it. He visited those who were injured during the protest on Friday. One of the residents said that the officials of Kerala Rail Development Corporation Ltd. had no answers to the questions posed by them. District Congress Committee president K. Praveen Kumar said these people were not even served a notice before laying the survey stones.
