VD Satheesan launches broadside in opposition to CPM on Ok-Rail challenge, writes to Sitaram Yechury

By PTI

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Hours forward of the CPI(M) get together congress in its stronghold Kannur district, Leader of Opposition within the Kerala Assembly VD Satheesan on Tuesday launched a broadside in opposition to the Left authorities on the Ok-Rail difficulty, alleging that it was adopting “an extreme right-wing” stand on the matter.

The Congress chief, who’s actively campaigning in opposition to the CPI(M)-led authorities’s flagship Ok-Rail initiative often known as SilverLine, warned the ruling get together for undermining the individuals’s protest in opposition to the multi-crore semi-high velocity railway challenge, saying it is going to change into the “Waterloo” for the get together in Kerala.

He additionally wrote a letter to CPI(M) basic secretary Sitaram Yechury, saying that the individuals of the state are keen to listen to from him on the challenge which raises critical ideological issues.

Urging the CPI(M) basic secretary to intervene within the matter, Satheesan mentioned it’s ironic to notice that the Communist get together, which is against the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed railway, is pushing the semi-high-speed SilverLine challenge in Kerala.

He alleged that the SilverLine challenge is a transparent case of collusion between company pursuits and state energy, on the expense of the frequent individuals.

“It is evident that the stance taken by the LDF government is a sharp deviation from Left ideology to the extreme right,” Satheesan mentioned.

Earlier, interacting with media at his official residence right here, Satheesan alleged that the CPI(M)-led authorities is following the identical proper wing path of the Narendra Modi-led authorities on the Centre on the SilverLine challenge.

“The BJP government can do this as that party is extreme right,” Satheesan mentioned right here, including that the Left is just a namesake for the current management of the CPI(M) as a coverage shift has occurred to it from the Left to excessive proper.

The Opposition chief mentioned the agitation will develop additional as a mass motion and change into a “Waterloo” for the CPI(M) in Kerala simply because it misplaced its base in West Bengal after the Nandigram wrestle that put an finish to the over three-decade outdated CPI(M) rule in that state.

In 2007, many farmers have been killed in police firing throughout an anti-land acquisition stir in Nandigram.

“We support this people’s agitation against the SilverLine. Non-bailable cases have been registered against our partymen. The CPI(M) had done the same thing against the people who had protested in Nandigram and Singur. Finally, it became the waterloo for the CPI(M) in West Bengal. SiverLine agitation is going to become waterloo for CPI(M) in Kerala,” Satheesan mentioned.

The Paravoor MLA dismissed the CPI(M) allegation that the Congress and the BJP have joined fingers to destabilise the Left authorities in Kerala.

“That narrative will not work,” he mentioned as high leaders of the CPI(M) landed in Kannur to attend the twenty third get together congress of the Left get together.

The five-day lengthy mega convention of the CPI(M), referred to as the Party Congress, will start on Wednesday.

Criticising the BJP’s agitation headed by Union Minister V Muraleedharan in opposition to the Ok-Rail challenge, Satheesan urged the management of the saffron get together to apprise Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the protests taking place in Kerala in opposition to the challenge and persuade him to declare that it’s going to not be sanctioned.

Asked concerning the purported Maoist posters saying the outlawed outfit’s help to the motion by individuals opposing the challenge, Satheesan mentioned his get together opposes the ideology of the Naxals however made it clear that they’ve additionally acquired an area within the society.

“We have differences with the Maoists. We are against killing them in planned encounters. Nine Maoists were killed by Pinarayi Vijayan’s police through fake encounters,” Satheesan alleged.

He mentioned there are nonetheless some unanswered questions with respect to the proposed SilverLine challenge that looms giant earlier than the state authorities.

Noting that the state’s funds are already in a funk and on the verge of collapsing, Satheesan mentioned the multi-crore challenge, which the federal government estimates to price Rs 64,000 crore, threatens to overburden the already depleted exchequer.

“The Niti Aayog estimates that it will cost Rs 1.5 lakh crore, with experts predicting that it will cost at least Rs 2 lakh crore. Can a cash economy like ours, or a consumer state like Kerala, afford such a massive debt?” he requested.

The Congress chief requested why ought to Kerala embrace the redundant know-how of the usual gauge when the world, together with Japan, is shifting to the broad gauge.

“Is this a tied condition to the loans from funding agencies like Japanese funding agency JICA,” he requested.

In his letter to Yechury, the Opposition chief mentioned aside from being incomplete, there was an enormous quantity of knowledge fudging that has been performed to point out this challenge as a viable one.

“The preliminary feasibility research, the feasibility research, and the DPR disclose enormous manipulations of knowledge by way of ridership information, price estimates, and alignment, amongst others.

This plainly demonstrates that the administration is especially involved with large kickbacks from international companies, together with the JICA”, he alleged.

The 530-km stretch from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod is proposed to be developed by Ok-Rail — a three way partnership of the Kerala authorities and the Railway Ministry for growing railway infrastructure within the southern state.

Starting from the state capital, SilverLine trains could have stoppages at Kollam, Chengannur, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Tirur, Kozhikode and Kannur earlier than reaching Kasaragod.