The Nilgiri-Wayanad NH and Railway Action Committee has blamed the State government for not taking into confidence the people of the north Kerala on the issue of lifting the ban on night traffic through the Bandipur Tiger Reserve on the NH 766.
It was unfortunate that the government had called a meeting of legislators and functionaries of the joint action committee that is spearheading the protest only after it had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court. A lobby operating from Kannur was behind the attempt to sabotage the project, committee convener T.M. Rasheed alleged.
The hasty action in which the government had filed the affidavit would only weaken the case. No alternative suggestions had been mentioned in the affidavit. Besides, it contained proposals that went against the observations made by the Supreme Court, Mr. Rasheed said.
He charged the government with playing into the ploy of this lobby to close the Bandipur stretch and allow vehicles to pass through the Gonikoppal-Kutta-Tholpetty-Mananthavady route. Incidentally, only two legislators from Wayanad district were invited to the meeting
Mr. Rasheed said that committee had been waging a battle for the past eight years to lift the ban on traffic. It had resisted the attempts to sabotage the issue when the case came up before the Supreme Court. That the apex court had even allowed a suggestion for the construction of five elevated sections of 1-km stretch on the highway was due to the efforts of the committee, he said.
He alleged that a plot had been hatched to drive a wedge between the elected representatives and leaders of the action committee.
