Minister of state V Muraleedharan on Saturday said the development could take place without evicting or displacing so many people, as he visited and interacted with people affected by the SilverLine project in Thiruvananthapuram.
SilverLine is the proposed semi-high speed rail corridor between Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod and is expected to reach from one end to another within four hours.
After his interaction, Muraleedharan told CNN-News18, “Many of these houses are newly constructed, people have put all their money, their life’s savings. Suddenly, when they are evicted they have no place to go. People are in a lot of apprehensions, they don’t know what their future is.”
The minister added that he was in favor of development, but it could be done without displacing so many people.
“I am sure without evicting so many people and displacing them, development can happen. Why is the state government insisting on evicting the people?” he asked.
The MoS said after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Kerala has suggested that he should meet the railway minister.
Muraleedharan said, “The railway minister, on the same day on the floor of parliament, said this project as it is now is an ecological disaster.”
The minister added that as of now no such geo-technical study had been done and, without such a study, the detailed project report did not have any such meaning.
The minister added, “Kerala can have Vande Bharat trains and with that we can reach from one end of Kerala to another in three and a half hours. Of course, a technical upgrade has to be done.”
The minister rejected all the allegations by the Congress that there was an “understanding” between the Left and the BJP as far as the project was concerned.
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