The proposed semi-high-speed SilverLine project will double the per-capita debt of each citizen in Kerala, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader P.K. Kunhalikkutty, MLA, has said.
He was opening a protest against the project outside the Kozhikode District Collectorate on Saturday. The United Democratic Front (UDF) organised similar events in all district centres.
Mr. Kunhalikkutty said every Malayali was already bearing the burden of high debt, which increased exponentially during the tenure of the previous Left Democratic Front government. With the SilverLine project, it would go up again. “We are not against the project, we never said that it is not required. But, we are not convinced about its implementation. People are not convinced,” he said. The IUML leader asked what studies had been done to gauge its economic as well as ecological feasibility. The government had not been able to present a clear picture even in the Assembly.
“That the SilverLine project will break the ecological balance of the State is being pointed out even by pro-Left environmental organisations. Where is the raw material going to come from? The people who are supporting it are the same ones who once claimed that a high-speed expressway proposed by us would divide the State into two,” he said.
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