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Amid the protest against the SilveLine semi high-speed rail project, the survey stones were installed under police protection on Monday in Kozhikode district of Kerala.
Earlier, Union Minister of State V Muraleedharan had said that BJP will not allow the state government to implement an anti-people project (rail project) by force. "What is going on in the name of SilverLine project displays atrocities against women. State Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is behaving like a quiet monocrat," said V Muraleedharan. The residents of Madampally near Changanassery in Kottayam started a protest on Friday after the officials of the K-Rail project came to demarcate land and to lay survey stones for the SilverLine project. Following this, workers of BJP and Congress reached the spot and started raising slogans against the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government. Entire Kerala is protesting against the SilverLine project. The project will adversely impact the environment because the state is an ecologically fragile place. The government did not carry out any geological or location surveys. The Railway Minister in Parliament had said that they had given in-principle approval for the draft proposal for the project and not for the construction. The state government acquiring the land without the approval of the Ministry of Railways," said VD Satheesan, Leader of Opposition (LoP), Kerala Assembly. The Kerala government's ambitious Silverline project, which is expected to reduce travel time from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod to around four hours, is being opposed by the opposition Congress-led UDF, which has been alleging that it was "unscientific and impractical" and will put a huge financial burden on the state. (ANI)
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