KOZHIKODE: Protests against SilverLine project intensified when the survey stone laying team reached Dharmadom panchayat, which comes under the assembly constituency of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, in Kannur on Friday.
K-Rail authorities were not able to lay a single survey stone during the over two-hour standoff which saw even local women joining the huge number of protesters in mounting a stiff resistance. In the scuffle which broke out later, one of the protesters manhandled a K-Rail official. Dharmadom police have not registered a case in this regard.
A large crowd of residents, along with activists from Congress, IUML and BJP, gathered at Cheeroth, the 14th ward of Dharmadom panchayat, when K-Rail officials and the police arrived for survey-related works around 12:30pm. The protesters blocked the officials and shouted slogans against the project. With protesters unrelenting and outnumbering the police, the police and K-Rail officials were forced to retreat by 1:30pm for lunch break.
But, the protesters remained in the area. Though K-Rail officials along with a larger posse of police returned at 3:45pm, the protesters did not budge.
People got emotional too; an aged woman (landowner) cried saying that she won't leave the land where she was born and she won't give it up even if crores of rupees are offered as compensation. While police were able to push ahead with the survey by taking protesters into custody during the past three days at Chala and Edakkad in the district, the scale of protests at Dharmadom was relatively large, making it difficult for them to foil the protests.
Earlier in the day, when the survey commenced at Muzhappilangad, protesters mounted a stiff resistance and women were seen uprooting one of the survey stones. In the melee, one woman fainted. Edakkad police arrested and removed three protesters by force and placed 16 survey stones in the area.
