People of the State must in unison demand the speedy implementation of the Kochi metro-rail project, former Judge of the Supreme Court V. R. Krishna Iyer has said.
This is because the mode of mass-rapid transport is needed to unwind the maddening traffic snarls in Kochi, he said, while inaugurating a Metro-Rail Protection Convention organised by the AITUC on Thursday at the Ernakulam Town Hall. “A section of merchants who are opposing the project must end their misunderstandings about it.”
He was critical of the Planning Commission suggesting a public-private partnership, as opposed to the Centre-State joint venture mooted for its execution by the State/Central Governments, the DMRC and the Union Urban Affairs Ministry. “The Planning Commission is making an attempt to test whether the situation is ripe in the State for rampant privatization. We want the project to be executed by the State/Central Governments in a speedy manner. Huge buildings and shopping malls are not the signs of development. On the contrary, development projects must be of help to ordinary people and make their life easier,” said the AITUC State general secretary Kaanam Rajendran. The State secretary of AITUC, P Raju presided.
