The Anti-K-Rail SilverLine People’s Struggle Committee’s third phase protest programmes that began from Azhiyur in Kozhikode a month ago concluded at the Secretariat on Christmas day with a fast by State and district committee office-bearers of 11 districts from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram.
Hundreds of letters from people affected by the project have been sent to the Chief Minister through registered post as part of the campaign ‘SilverLine venda Navakeralathinu’ as part of the protest, a statement by S. Rajeevan, general convener of the committee said.
A mass petition signed by nearly 25,000 people from 300-odd protest committees raising the same demand and to be sent to Minister for Railways V. Abdurahiman was received by committee patron Joseph M. Puthussery from Azhiyur Ramachandran at the site of the fast, the statement said.
A meeting held in connection with the fast was inaugurated by Congress leader V.M. Sudheeran. In his address, the former Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president said the permission of the Railway Board was required to implement a rail project in any State. For this, 13 basic studies in the railway engineering code had to be conducted. A rail line using the SiverLine detailed project report prepared on the basis of just a week-long aerial survey was impractical. Even the State government was aware of this, he said.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader V.V. Rajesh demanded that the government itself should abandon the SilverLine project as two Vande Bharat trains had been launched and steps for railway line development and addition of new lines taken. As the project would not do any good for the special environment in the State, it would not be given approval by the Union government, he said. Environmental activist Sreedhar Radhakrishnan and political analyst Joseph Mathew spoke.
