KOCHI: Declaring that the Congress is determined to stop implementation of SilverLine Semi High-Speed Rail Project, state Congress president K Sudhakaran said nobody can ignore public sentiments and go ahead with the project which will divide Kerala into two regions. The Congress will go to any extent to defeat the plan to implement the project by forcefully taking over houses, he said, while inaugurating the joint convention of Congress leaders from four districts in Kochi on Saturday. The meeting discussed steps to intensify the protest against K-Rail project.
Sudhakaran said that the rail project will divide the state and environmental and social impact of the project will be disastrous. “Not just people living on both sides of the rail project, but people across the state will be affected. The embankment of the rail project will cause waterlogging in some places while it will lead to water scarcity in other places. The decision to implement a project without conducting even an environmental impact study is a cruelty towards Nature and the residents of the affected areas,” said Sudhakaran.
He demanded that a session of the assembly be convened to discuss the project. The convention decided to join hands with environmentalists and social workers to launch an offensive against the K Rail project. Congress workers will conduct awareness programmes at district level and will start a door-to-door campaign against the project.
Ernakulam district Congress president Mohammed Shiyas presided over the convention. KPCC discipline committee chairman Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, MPs Benny Behanan and Hibi Eden, MLAs Anwar Sadath, Mathew Kuzhalnadan and Roji M John, KPCC vice president V P Sajeendran and others attended the convention.