Amidst the ideological questions being raised against the CPM over the proposed semi-high-speed rail project in Kerala, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said at the CPM party congress that the government was trying its best to implement the rail project.
Vijayan alleged in his welcome address at the party congress at Kannur in Kerala that the opposition parties in Kerala (Congress and BJP) were raising arguments that defy logic.
Meanwhile, sources said that the party delegates from Maharashtra may take up the matter in the party congress.
The statement of Vijayan, who is also a politburo member of the CPM, came at a time when the CPM was accused of maintaining a double standard by opposing the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed-rail project and taking forward the semi-high-speed rail project in Kerala. Even Kerala Opposition leader V D Satheesan of the Congress sent a letter to CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday asking him to clarify the party's position on the matter.
The Thiruvananthapuram-Kasargod semi-high-speed rail project being initiated by the Pinarayi Vijayan government as a flagship project has been facing stiff resistance from various quarters with people emotionally resisting laying of demarcation stones as a prelude to acquiring land for the project. Even then the Vijayan government was quite adamant in taking forwards the 530 km greenfield rail project that aims at reducing the travel time between Thiruvananthapuram in the south and Kasargod in the north to less than four hours, while it takes around ten hours by road and rail now.
Vijayan said that the government believed in developing infrastructure. Economic growth, social justice, and protection of the environment were being given equal importance while implementing projects by the state government. Fare compensation would be ensured to those who have to surrender their land for the project, he said.
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