Puthuvype agitators welcome decision, but protest to continue

We will continue our struggle till the LPG project is shelved, says a protester

The agitators have registered their protest against the Chief Minister’s statement that the LPG project will not be dropped.

The decision to suspend the construction of Indian Oil Corporation Limited’s (IOC) LPG import terminal temporarily was met with subdued elation by the people at Puthuvype on Wednesday afternoon.

Members of the People’s Protest Committee against LPG Terminal, including housewives, were anxiously waiting from morning at the protest camp in front of the project site for the outcome of the meeting Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had convened with the representatives of the protest committee in Thiruvananthapuram.

When the news about the decisions taken at the meeting reached them in the afternoon, they instantly broke into singing and sloganeering as a mark of their victory though they stopped short of an all-out celebrations.

“We welcome the move to temporarily halt the construction, and the appointment of an expert committee to verify the possible violation of environmental regulations by the company. However, we register our strong protest against the Chief Minister’s statement that the project will not be dropped.

He was also silent on what action will be taken against the police officers who unleashed brutality against even women and children,” said M.G. Xavier, an active member of the protest committee.

He said that the protest would continue and its form would be decided at the executive committee of the protest committee to be convened at the protest camp on Thursday at 11 a.m. once the committee leaders who had gone to Thiruvananthapuram to attend the meeting returned.

“There is no question of allowing the LPG Terminal in the name of development at the cost of existence of our future generations. We will continue our struggle till the project is shelved,” said a woman who had been at the protest camp from the morning.

‘Peaceful protest’

Her friend, who led the singing a while earlier, said that police officers who unleashed a reign of terror should not be allowed to get off scot-free. “We have been protesting all these months peacefully. The State government should ensure that the police do not provoke us, and withdraw them from the site,” she said.