The government on Sunday came under fire from the Opposition which accused it of using the social impact assessment (SIA) as a cover to go ahead with the land acquisition for the SilverLine semi-high-speed railway project.
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan spotlighted a series of notifications stating that a survey would be carried out to acquire land for the project. He said the government was trying to hoodwink the people into believing that the laying of marker stones was for the SIA and had nothing to do with land acquisition.
“The Chief Minister has asserted that the project will be implemented at any cost, even before the SIA has been completed. That shows the SIA is nothing but a farce. Right from the beginning, the government has resorted to obfuscation and data fudging. The Chief Minister, his Cabinet colleagues and K-Rail are speaking in different voices on the project,” he told reporters in Kochi.
A government order (GO) issued by the Revenue department on August 18, 2021, accorded sanction for the acquisition of 955.13 hectares of land in 11 districts and the creation of a special deputy collector office in Ernakulam and special tahsildar offices in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Kannur and Kasaragod.
Responding to the Opposition Leader's attack, Revenue Minister K. Rajan said on Sunday that the GO was issued as a normal procedure. The government, he said, had never said there would not be land acquisition for the project. It would follow the due process prescribed by the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013 which involves the SIA.
Mr. Satheesan said there was strong opposition to the SilverLine project from within the CPI(M) as well as its coalition partners and Left sympathisers. He accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of foisting his agenda on his Cabinet colleagues and the government.
Mr. Satheesan said the UDF would seek legal means against the effort to lay marker stones for K-Rail in private property. He pilloried the DYFI for turning a blind eye to the environmental consequences of the project and warned that it would push Kerala into a financial crisis akin to that in Sri Lanka.
Union Minister V. Muraleedharan said the State government lacked clarity on all aspects of the project, including land acquisition. “A project with a cost estimate of ₹1,00,000 crore and requiring the displacement of thousands of families cannot be handled in a casual manner,” he said, pointing out that the project report submitted to the Centre was unscientific and impractical.
Mr. Muraleedharan said the government should come up with an alternative project for a new railway line with one track dedicated to freight traffic.
