THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Resumption of the survey stone laying work for the Kerala government's ambitious semi-high speed rail corridor project after a gap was marred by protests against the initiative on Thursday, with locals and anti-Silver Line activists clashing with the police in the state capital and northern Kannur, prompting authorities to halt the process temporarily.
Alleging police highhandedness against protesters, the opposition Congress came down heavily on the Pinarayi Vijayan government and urged it to stop action against common people and their party activists, who protest the multi-crore project.
Leader of Opposition in the assembly, V D Satheesan even drew parallel between the police action against the anti-Silver Line protesters in the state and the demolition drive in New Delhi and asked whether Left leader Brinda Karat was seeing this.
A group of local people, led by the Congress activists, blocked the officials when they arrived with the equipment to plant survey stones near Kaniyapuram in Thiruvananthapuram.
The clash broke out after the police, who escorted the officials, tried to remove the protesters from the area.
In visuals aired by local television channels, a policeman is purportedly seen kicking some of the protesters with his boot. Later, the injured were rushed to a nearby hospital.
One of the protesters said they would continue to gather at the place and they would never allow officials to lay the survey stones. He also said the residents of the place did not get any prior information regarding the procedure.
However, police rejected the allegations of high-handedness against the agitators, saying they did not kick any protester but only tried to provide protection to K-Rail officials.
At Chala in Kannur district, local people, under the aegis of the anti-Silver Line People's Forum, blocked the vehicle which arrived carrying the survey stones.
People, including women, gathered in huge numbers in the area, announcing that they would not allow the survey stones on their land.
Police then arrested and removed the protesters from the area. It was after a gap of almost one month that the authorities resumed the survey stone laying process, which had led to mass protest in several parts of Kerala since the beginning.
Meanwhile, Satheesan visited the people injured in the alleged police action near Kaniyapuram, at a local hospital where they were admitted for treatment.
He said the Congress would not allow the Left government to install the survey stones for the mammoth project and they would continue uproot them across the state. "We are ready to face any consequence in this regard. We will explain the people about our stand in the issue," Satheesan told reporters.
Though the Left government is going ahead with the multi-crore semi-high-speed rail project, it is being opposed by the opposition Congress and the BJP as well as by the local people in many parts of the southern state.
The SilverLine rail corrdior, envisaged to cover a 530-kilometre stretch from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod, is estimated to cost around Rs 64,000 crore.
The project aims to make transportation easy along the entire north south of Kerala and reduce travel time to less than four hours as against 12 14 hours.