Stirs against Kerala rail project turning aggressive; CM blames opposition

As the stirs against demarking land for the proposed semi-high-speed rail in Kerala has been taking ugly turns day by day with women and children facing police action on Thursday, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan alleged that it was the opposition parties that trigger the violent stirs.

On Thursday women who tried to prevent the officials from laying stones demarking land for the rail line were seen carried away forcefully by the police at Madapally near Changanaserry in Kottayam district of Kerala. The scenes of a child weeping as her mother was being forcefully separated from her by the police and being dragged and carried away were going viral.

An emotionally charged woman said that if Pinarayi Vijayan was dreaming of highspeed rail, she was dreaming of protecting her hard-earned properties. Another local native said that he would resist the rail project at any cost as the ten cents of land that he purchased after working aboard for 20 years need to be protected.

The tension escalated with local people and activists trying to prevent the officials by allegedly pelting stones and some of them even staging suicide threats with kerosene. After the arrest of some of the activists and local people, the agitators staged protests in front of the local police station demanding the release of those arrested. The agitators also called for a hartal in the locality on Friday.

The Assembly session was progressing when the police action against the people happened. Opposition leader V D Satheesan of the Congress brought the matter to the notice of the house and boycotted the house. He stated that the assurance being given by the Chief Minister in the house that there would not be any police excess on the agitators was being violated. The opposition party would strongly resist the government's attempts to suppress mass stirs using force, he said.

Vijayan told the house that the opposition party was trying to trigger protest by creating unnecessary provocation even as the process of laying the stones for demarking the land was progressing peacefully.

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