A resident threatening suicide with an open LPG cylinder created tense moments during an anti-SilverLine protest at Thazhuthala here on Wednesday.
A group of residents, majority of them women, stood with placards expecting the arrival of revenue officials to lay marker stones. Ajayakumar, who kept a gas cylinder in front of his house, said he would immolate himself if the officials went ahead with the procedures.
He wrote a note to the district judge and pasted it on the wall of his house saying K-Rail and the government are responsible for his death. Pointing out the example of Moolampally evictees, the residents said they were not willing for any compromise and most of them were in no position to deal with displacement.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress held separate protests in the area in support of the residents. A vehicle carrying the stones was stopped by Congress workers led by MLA P.C. Vishnunath.
After the protest continued for hours and another attempt to conduct the survey near the area was met with resistance, the vehicle carrying the marker stones left the place. The residents said they were not informed about the arrival of revenue officials on Wednesday.
“If they return on Thursday, we will continue with the protest. We will do everything possible to prevent them from laying the stones,” they said.
The residents of Thazhuthala had threatened suicide when the officials first visited the area in December 2021, sending the team back. Though senior Left Democratic Front (LDF) leaders, including former Minister J. Mercykutty Amma, had met the residents, the talks yielded no results.
