THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: People who will be affected due to SilverLine expressed major concerns regarding land acquisition activities, reveals the Social Impact Assessment. A section of people criticised the work pointing that it will divide their village (13%), socially isolate villagers (16%), make less land available for them (14%) and increase living costs (17.5%) in the area.
Even though the state government kept the SilverLine DPR a secret till now, the assessment suggests the need to provide information on SiverLine to the public. Even among those aware about the project, 8% have no idea about the alignment. Information regarding the project needed to be provided both in print and on social media platforms, says the report.
Assessing information regarding awareness and impact of the project and people’s attitude towards the rail line, shows that 73.8% of households are aware of the project in their area, but are not completely aware of the exact alignment.
While 91% got their information through print media, just 4% got it via social media platforms.
As many as 64% said their land will be completely acquired for the project, while 28% believe that they will lose only a portion of land.
About 18% are under the impression that they can reuse the property while another 56% said it cannot be reused. More than one third of the households said the project will affect their main source of income while 31% said their agricultural land will be affected.
DPR out as oppn threatens breach of privileges
The detailed project report of SilverLine was published in the website of Niyamasabha on Saturday as opposition UDF initiated breach of privileges. Aluva MLA and Congress leader Anwar Sadath sought copies of the DPR and environmental study report as an assembly question on October 27, 2020. Though CM Pinarayi Vijayan replied that it would be given in a CD, Anwar didn’t get that. On last Thursday, he wrote to Speaker M B Rajesh, raising the issue of breach of privilege. K-Rail had taken a stand that DPR is its intellectual property and couldn’t be made public.