The SilverLine project will not only be wasteful, but also financially non-viable, environmental activist Medha Patkar has said. She was delivering the inaugural address at a mass gathering organised by the K-Rail Virudha Samithi (protest committee) here on Thursday against the SilverLine project and the valedictory of a march taken out from Kasaragod across 11 districts to the State capital.
Ms. Patkar said the protest against the project was a battle to save Kerala, its natural resources, and more than 20,000 families, but also the country from the high-speed development paradigm. “We want development, not destruction,’’ Ms. Patkar said.
“Neo-liberal policies are bringing in projects such as SilverLine or the bullet train. Both are more or less the same. Still, the destruction in Kerala will be much more than that in Maharashtra where protests are being held against the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project,” she said.
After the floods, the Kerala government was expected to review the development paradigm. But instead of having a dialogue with the people who were questioning the project, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had gone to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “We want to raise the question if they have the same development vision.”
The in-principle nod for a pre-feasibility study that was given by the Union government was the first wrong step. Differences in facts in the pre-feasibility, feasibility, and detailed project reports had been pointed out earlier, she said, asking what should one believe.
Raising the issue of environmental and social impact assessments of the project, she said that without legal mandatory processes, lives of people would be affected. Instead of taking development on the path of sustainbility and justice, people’s homes were being trespassed on.
Terming the project elitist, she appealed to the LDF constituents to enter into a dialogue with the people who were protesting against the project.
The protest, Ms. Patkar said, should be taken ahead by a leadership that had the support of MPs and MLAs who were sensitive to the people’s demand but also communities from across the State.
Shashikant Sonawane, a leader of the protest against the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, said the CPI(M) leadership that was against the train project there was proposing the SilverLine project here. “Is the CPI(M) in Maharashtra different from that in Kerala?”
People’s power was sovereign in a democracy, he said, saying no one could negate it. “Who will travel by SilverLine. Who will pay for it?” he asked.
Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said this was not a political protest, but a call by the people for their survival. People’s opinions should be taken into account. Any concerns expressed should be addressed by the government, he said.
Samithi chairman M.P. Baburaj presided.
