THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Villagers struggling to prevent the flattening of a 250-acre paddy stretch, part of the proposed Keezhattoor NH bypass, will meet on Friday to discuss PWD Minister G. Sudhakaran’s assurance to freeze realignment pending a consensus. At a meeting attended by CPM Kannur district secretary P. Jayarajan, Mr James Mathew, MLA, and action council leaders C. Suresh and Noble Paikada here on Thursday, Mr Sudhakaran offered to explore an alternate alignment at Keezhattoor to protect paddy but he insisted there would be no going back on developing the NH.
He discounted fears that the agitation, spearheaded by party sympathisers and green activists in the party village, would develop into a Nandigram model struggle. (Nandigram in West Bengal was the site of an SEZ plan for Indonesia-based Salim Group, which villagers thwarted through bloodshed during LF Government). Mr Sudhakaran reassured the action council leaders that the alignment notification would be held back till the dispute was settled and an expert committee studied issues raised by the people of Keezhattoor. Also, paddy land would be protected as far as possible, he said.
Tracing the history of the agitation, action council leader Baiju N. told DC that the most intriguing part of the NH bypass survey was the decision to overturn the September 2016 alignment agreement and initiate a fresh survey for the Kuppam-Kuttikol segment, comprising Keezhattoor. All parties present at the Kannur collector’s meeting in September had endorsed the alignment, based on feasibility and environment impact assessment studies. But later in August this year officials curiously started a survey for Keezhattoor realignment.
“We believe there is vested interest behind this, but we will not let them vivisect the residual green lung of Keezhattoor”, said Mr Baiju. Government officials contend that the realignment is meant to save 90 houses from demolition. But agitators say already 25-odd families had shifted out to facilitate NH development as per the original plan. The Government has been desperate to prevent the agitation in the party village from slipping out of hand, especially after CPI and BJP joined forces with the action council to protect the environment.
