A Nandigram in Kerala?

The Rs60,000-crore K-Rail project is dividing Kerala

24-Protesters-and-the-police-clash Development by force?: Protesters and the police clash over the laying of survey stones in Ernakulam district | Josekutty Panackal

A Nandigram is in the making in Kerala; or at least, efforts are on in that direction. If the 2007 agitation against a planned chemical hub in West Bengal’s Nandigram village ended up uprooting the left front from a state it had ruled for decades, the ongoing protests against a high-speed rail project called Silver Line are posing challenges to the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front government in Kerala.

A top bureaucrat said the state government cannot afford to antagonise the people if the project is to be implemented.

The Rs60,000-crore Silver Line project, aka K-Rail, is the biggest infrastructure project in Kerala’s history. It envisages a 530km dedicated rail corridor linking Thiruvananthapuram in the south to Kasaragod in the north, which will enable trains to run at 200kmph and cover the distance in less than four hours. An attractive proposition, considering that it currently takes 12 hours to travel from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod. The proposed corridor will pass through 11 districts, and there will be 12 stations.

The state government has begun the laying of survey stones to initiate the project’s social impact study, sparking protests across the state. People are preventing authorities from entering their property and laying the stones. Clashes have turned violent in some places.

The government had announced an attractive compensation package for those affected by the project, but fears persist about delays in implementation, depreciation in land value on both sides of the tracks, and difficulties in securing land for resettlement. “The value of our land will nosedive,” said Mini P.C. of Alappuzha, an affected person. “This [rail corridor] cannot be compared with a road development project, as the value of land on both sides of the road would naturally increase in due course. But in a rail project, the value of land parcels go down as no development can take place near the track.”

Of the 1,222.45 hectares that the project needs, as much as 1,074.19 hectares is private property. The government insists that only around 9,000 buildings, houses included, need to be taken over. Critics say that the actual number is much higher. Since Kerala is one of the most densely populated states in the country, rehabilitation also remains a major concern. “Kerala has no excess land available,” said Baburaj M.P., leader of the protest group K-Rail Virudha Samithi. “Even if we are compensated well, where will we all go?”

Baburaj said the project comes with a huge environmental cost. “The state has witnessed two devastating floods in the recent past. It cannot afford a project like Silver Line that divides the state into two,” he said.

Both the Congress and the BJP have joined the protests. “Silver Line will be the Nandigram of Kerala, and what happened to the CPI(M) in West Bengal will happen here,” said V.D. Satheesan, leader of the opposition in the assembly. “We warn [Chief Minister Pinarayi] Vijayan that the Congress-led front will not allow this project to go forward. Kerala will soon see unprecedented protests against this impractical project.”

State BJP president K. Surendran said Silver Line is going to be “another Sabarimala”, referring to the protracted row in 2018 over the state government’s decision to implement the Supreme Court verdict allowing women to enter the Sabarimala temple. “The LDF government had burnt its fingers in the Sabarimala case,” said Surendran. “Silver Line is going to be a repeat.”

The LDF is in no mood to budge, though. “The opposition’s protest will be handled politically,” said CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. “The government is ready to hold talks with individuals who are directly affected by the project. Those who want to protest can protest. But if the police is prevented from doing their duty, they would take measures to resolve it. If the objective [of the protesters] is to have a police firing and create a Nandigram-like situation, then that is not going to happen.”

Doubts continue to be raised about the project’s social, economic and environmental feasibility. A top bureaucrat said the state government cannot afford to antagonise the people if the project is to be implemented. “The government must ensure that there is more clarity on the project; the posturing, too, has to be correct if it is serious about going ahead with the plan,” the bureaucrat told THE WEEK. “The opposition will try to fish in troubled waters. But it is the government’s duty to keep the water clean.”

CPI(M), however, is confident of winning the battle. “The Congress and the BJP had led a series of protests against national highway expansion and the laying of GAIL pipeline during the tenure of the previous LDF government,” said party leader K. Anilkumar. “But we could complete all those projects by winning the trust of the people. We will be able to convince the people about the benefits of Silver Line as well.”

The Congress, for its part, insists that it is not against development projects. “We do realise that the state needs a speedy mode of transportation,” said Congress leader Rahul Mankoottathil. “But we are opposing K-Rail because it is not feasible—economically, socially or environmentally.”

Political observers blame both the ruling and opposition fronts for the current crisis. “Silver Line is an ambitious project capable of changing the face of Kerala,” said Sudha Menon, an Ahmedabad-based social researcher. “But the LDF government should realise that this is not the way to implement it.”

A way to solve the issue, according to her, is for the government to set up an expert committee for assessing the project’s socioeconomic and environmental impact. She also said the Congress was trying to be more leftist than the CPI(M). “The Congress has been a strong votary of all development projects,” said Menon. “Blindly opposing something like Silver Line will not earn it the appreciation of its traditional voters.”

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