THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Close on the heels of the Cabinet sanctioning alternative land for the mosque and burial ground at Pappanamcode which will be removed for the widening of Karamana-Kaliyikavila NH road, protests are brewing over the cold shoulder given to the demolished Gandhi Mandiram situated at Kaimanam.
Members of the Gandhi Mandira Samithi have expressed remorse over the government remaining tight-lipped about the promised three cents of land for the memorial at the BSNL compound at Kaimanam.
In protest, the Samithi is carrying out a fast on the spot on Friday, on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanthi where the memorial was located.
Earlier, the authorities had proposed to relocate the memorial on a three-cent plot having a road frontage at the KSRTC central works compound near Kaimanam Junction.
“ Three orders were issued by the transport secretary to allot the three cents on KSRTC land for the Gandhi memorial. The KSRTC director board refused to accept this option. Later, we were informed to relocate it to the BSNL land. The three-month period for the take-over of the land is over. Now, we are told to allocate the land for the Masjid,” said K Surendran Nair, president of the Gandhi Mandira Samithi at a press-conference here on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Samithi filed a case against the KSRTC at the High Court for receiving the earlier promised land. The Gandhi statue is, at present kept with the Archeology department. It was last week that the Cabinet decided to allotting a substitute land for the mosque at the KSRTC Central Works Unit.
The Gandhi memorial and Masjid had posed a roadblock in the widening of the Karamana-Kaliyikavila NH road work. Citing the passage of a pipeline underneath the road, the memorial was razed down early this year.