Kerala: Protest Against Silver Line Rail Project Continues, Vijayan Rejects Agitation As 'Anti-Development'

Accusing the opposition Congress and BJP of acting as stumbling blocks to the progress of the state, Vijayan said that the multi-crore project would be implemented as announced

Kerala: Protest Against Silver Line Rail Project Continues, Vijayan Rejects Agitation As 'Anti-Development' (File Image)

New Delhi: While Kerala continued to witness protests against the government’s Silver Line rail corridor project, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, rejecting the agitation, on Saturday said that the demonstrations were against the development of the state and that none of the projects announced by the Left government would be rolled back.

Accusing the opposition Congress and BJP of acting as stumbling blocks to the progress of the southern state, Vijayan said that the people are aware of their motive and that the multi-crore project would be implemented as announced.

"The opposition Congress has become a group which stands against the progress of the land. The BJP also adopts a similar position... Whatever projects have been announced by the government, they all will be implemented with the support of the people," news agency PTI quoted Vijayan saying at an event in Kollam.

However, reiterating their stand on the issue, opposition Congress-UDF and BJP said that they won't allow the Marxist Party government to implement the Silver Line project and would extend all support to the common people who have been staging protests across the state.

Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan said that the UDF has taken over the anti-Silver Line protest and would continue to remove the survey stones being laid by the authorities as part of the implementation of the project.

"The people of the state will not allow such a project to happen in our state. We are with such common people. We will continue our fight," Satheesan told PTI reporters in Kochi.

Notably, Union Minister V Muraleedharan visited Madappally, a tiny hamlet in Kottayam district, where police forcibly removed agitators, including women, as the protest turned violent two days back.

Later, assuring that the central government had not yet approved the implementation of the project, he said, “People won't allow the government to implement such projects. The Centre already made it clear that they have given no nod for the initiative. No one can implement such a project through the means of violence in the democratic India.”

Condemning the alleged police action against the protestors, especially women, Muraleedharan sought to know whether the government was conducting the social impact study by dragging them on roads.

The minister also claimed that the ‘police high-handedness’ in Madappally was a ‘pre-planned’ one as the police personnel came wearing helmets and avoiding their name boards to block all possible chances to recognise them.

Meanwhile, agitation continued in several parts of the state on Saturday, including Tirur in Malapppuram and Chottanikkara in Ernakulam district, where a swarm of protestors, especially women, took to streets demonstrating against railway officials who came to install survey stones.