THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to break the impasse over rail coach factory at Kanjikode. Inaugurating the dharna of CPM MPs in front of the Rail Bhavan in Delhi, the chief minister said the central government should give a categoric assurance on the coach factory project. He said it was unfortunate the Centre's indifference towards railway prjoects of Kerala was continuing.
The LDF parliamentarians said the successive governments at the Centre had been sitting over the project since past three decades. But what has perturbed the state is the Centre’s favourable response towards setting up rail coach factories in BJP ruled Haryaana and Uttar Pradesh. This clearly indicated the partial behaviour of the Centre and utter neglect towards the state’s long pending demands in railway sector. They pointed out that railways had been handed over 230.10 acres of land for the rail coach project years ago.
Though both LDF and UDF are firmly backing the demand for setting up of Kanjikode rail coach factory, the two fronts do not seem to be keen for a joint fight because of political reasons. UDF MPs are planning to hold a separate dharna on the same issue on Monday. The LDF and UDF leaders had levelled allegations and counter allegations accusing each other of scoring brownie points on the issue of Kanjikode project.
The UDF leadership had alleged that the LDF MPs had taken a unilateral decision on holding a dharna in front of rail bhawan. The LDF leaders, however, claim that the UDF MPs were hesitant to share the stage with the Left fearing that they might face an embarrassing situation over the failure of previous UPA Governments on this front.
