KOCHI: The decision of the state government to redeploy officials posted to land-acquisition units for the SilverLine (K-Rail) project has raised serious questions about the future of the ruling dispensation’s dream project. However, protesters are determined to continue their agitation until the project is abandoned.
The concern of thousands of affected people is that if the project is delayed indefinitely the lands demarcated for the social impact assessment study will lie idle. The protesters cite the example of land acquired for the Sabari Rail project which has been lying frozen for several years with the Union government’s clearance not forthcoming.
“The government issued two notifications, on August 18 and October 30 last year, for creating land-acquisition offices and acquisition of 1,221 hectares of land in 11 districts for the SilverLine project. As these notifications are yet to be cancelled, all the properties mentioned remain frozen, even as some banks and financial institutions cite otherwise. But banks will refuse loans for properties with survey stones,” said M T Thomas, of Mulakulam in Kottayam district, who is spearheading the protests in the area.
Violent protests broke out in several districts early this year after K-Rail authorities started laying yellow survey stones for the social impact assessment. The opposition Congress and BJP workers also clashed with police in many places.
The survey had to be suspended due to stiff resistance in Mulanthuruthy, Angamaly, Kottayam, Malappuram and Kannur. “We launched the protest on September 19, 2019, in Mulakulam. The small spark has flared up and reached every corner of the state. We were the first to move the High Court and NGT in the matter. More than `100 crore of public money was wasted without any proper sanction. Now that the government has decided to stall all proceedings, charges against the agitators must be dropped,” Thomas added.
Salvin K P, an organiser of protests in the Aluva-Angamaly region, said the government booked even people who took out protest rallies.
He added that the situation is not ripe to wind down the strike as the recent order itself says new notifications entrusting officials to conduct a social impact assessment study will be taken forward once the approval from the Railway Board for the project is received.