NILESHWARAM: At a time when the ‘Vayalkkilikal’ agitators of Keezhattur are planning to relaunch their protest on March 25, Agriculture Minister V S Sunilkumar said he would protect the paddy fields at any cost. “There is no question of giving up the paddy fields,” he told Express. Sunilkumar said the matter had not come before him yet.
“A committee is reviewing it as of now,” he said, without specifying which committee. “The project comes under the PWD. I’ll look into it when it comes before me,” he said. Vayalkkilikal, a collective of farmers losing their paddy fields to a proposed national highway, is facing stiff resistance from the CPM at Keezhattur near Taliparamba in Kannur district.
Last Wednesday, CPM activists allegedly set afire a shed of the protesters and reportedly forced the reluctant officers to survey the land for the highway. The protesters were arrested by the police and held at the Taliparamba station till the survey was completed.
Sunilkumar, who belongs to the CPI, made it clear the paddy fields would be protected. “Protecting paddy fields is my job, and they’ll be protected,” he said. The government is planning to level 250 acres of paddy fields to construct a bypass at Keezhattur.