As Kerala continued to witness furious protests from people against the left-wing government’s flagship Silver Line rail corridor project, Prime Minister Pinarayi Vijayan made it categorically clear on Saturday that the multi-crore infrastructure initiative would be implemented as announced with the support of the people of the southern state. .
He dismissed the ongoing agitation reported from various parts of the state against the laying of research bricks, saying such demonstrations were against the country’s development and that none of the projects announced by the government would remain on paper alone.
The CM also accused the opposition Congress and the BJP of taking a stand against the progress of the state, but warned them that the common people were aware of their motive. “The opposition congress has become a group opposing the country’s progress.
The BJP also takes a similar stance… Whatever projects the government has announced, they will all be carried out with the support of the people,” Vijayan said during a speech in Kollam. Opposition Congress-UDF and BJP reiterated their position, saying that they would not allow the Marxist Party government to carry out the Silver Line project as the people of the state strongly opposed it and would have all their support grant to the common people who protest in different places.
Opposition leader VD Satheesan said the UDF has taken up the anti-Silver Line agitation and will continue to remove the investigative stones laid by the authorities as part of the project’s implementation.
“The people of the state will not allow such a project to take place in our state. We are with such ordinary people. We will continue our struggle,” he told reporters in Kochi. Union Minister V Muraleedharan visited Madappally, a small hamlet in Kottayam district, where police had forcibly removed rioters, including women, when the protest turned violent two days ago, and listened to the concerns of locals.
Later, the senior BJP leader assured them that the central government had not given any nod to the state authorities to carry out the project. “People will not allow the government to carry out such projects. The Center has already made it clear that they have not given a nod to the initiative. No one can carry out such a project by force in democratic India,” he told reporters . †
He strongly condemned the alleged police crackdown on people, especially female protesters, and sought to find out whether the government conducted the social impact study by dragging them across the road. Muraleedharan also accused the “police handiness” in Madappally was a “pre-planned” as police personnel wore helmets and avoided their nameplates to block any possible chances of recognizing them.
Meanwhile, protests continued today in several places across the state, including Tirur in Malapppuram and Chottanikkara in Ernakulam district, where a large number of people, especially women, took to the streets to protest against K-Rail officials installing surveyors.
This post silver line: Anti-Silver Line stirs in Kerala; CM dismisses agitations as ‘anti-development’
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