K-Rail protests motivated by "terror-groups": CPI(M)

Thiruvananthapuram: The ruling CPI(M) in Kerala maintains that the protests against the state government's flagship semi-high speed rail project, K-Rail, are politically motivated, and the state government will move forward with the project. Minister for Fisheries and Culture Saji Cheriyaan claimed on Tuesday that there is the involvement of terror groups too, The News Minute reported.

Minister Cheriyan said the terror groups had misinformed the public that there is a 1km radius buffer zone adjacent to rail, and obviously, people will react.

The LDF (Left Democratic Front) has held a meeting in Madappaly, Changanassery, where police unleashed a brutal assault on protestors on March 17.

Minister Cooperation and Registration VN Vasavan said that the protests are politically motivated and the government will move forward with the project. On Congress taking the lead in demonstrations, Vasavan said that the party, only alive in two states of India and going to disappear after elections, is not in a position to protect anybody.

CPI(M) state Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said that if the protesters keep uprooting and throwing away the foundation stones, the government will bring more from Tamil Nadu to complete the survey process. Addressing the media at Malappuram on Tuesday, he added that the survey would continue, identifying properties for the project and assessing its social impact. Though the protestors barged into the Secretariate, a behaviour which deserves a beating, police observed restraint, he said.

CPI(M) leader EP Jayarajan slammed Congress that the party has fallen into the hands of a bunch o morons. He claimed that protests against the K-Rail had no support from the masses.

Meanwhile, the Leader of the Opposition hit back that the government is insulting people because it is intoxicated with power and despise popular struggles because it speaks for the elite. Both EP Jayarajan and Saji Cheriyan are doing a good job playing Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's clown, he taunted.

He accused the government of charging non-bailable offences on the protestors, including Congress party members, and said that the Opposition was ready to go to jail for this cause.

Invoking the farmer protests' instances, Shafi Parambil, Palakkad MLA, alleged that the Pinarayi government adopted the Sangh Parivar policy, calling protestors terrorists.