K-Rail debate might turn out to be a damp squib

Thiruvananthapuram, April 26 (SocialNews.XYZ) The proposed debate on K-Rail with two panels, one for and one against, slated for Thursday may turn out to be a damp squib with two of those slated to speak against the project withdrawing citing lack of transparency in the way the debate has been conceived.

Those who have withdrawn include Alok Varma and environmentalist Sreedhar Radhakrishnan.

According to sources, the state government is not keen on having Joseph C. Mathew on the panel and it was after hectic pressure from the office of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan that he was dropped, after first being informed that he will be one of the speakers.

Originally listed in the two panels were Mathew, public personality R.V.G. Menon and former Indian Railways official Alok Varma, all of whom have been vehemently opposing the project.

Menon, however, has said he will take part if there is a debate.

Those who are supposed to speak in favour of the project include Kuncheria P. Isaac, former vice-chancellor of the Kerala Technology University, former Railway Board member S.K. Jain, and president of Trivandrum Chamber of Commerce, S.N. Raghuchandran Nair.

Mathew has never been in the good books of Vijayan as he was a long-standing close aide of V.S. Achuthanandan. Mathew was Achuthanandan's IT advisor when the latter became the Chief Minister in 2006. Even Achuthanandan was helpless when Vijayan, the then state secretary of the party, was hell-bent on removing Mathew from the post, which was done.

Reacting to the way he was first invited and then removed, Mathew termed it as a sad state of affairs as the K-Rail officials just cannot even know how to handle a debate and they are going to implement this massive project.

If completed, the K-Rail project will see a 529.45 km corridor connecting Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod with semi-high speed trains covering the distance in around four hours.

While Vijayan and the Kerala unit of the CPI-M are determined to go ahead with the project, both the Congress and the BJP say that it is not needed given the massive cost involved which they say will be in excess of Rs 1.50 lakh crore. The project would also be an environmental and economic disaster and would be a huge burden for the next generation, the opposition parties feel.

There have been widespread protests across the state when the K-Rail officials were engaged in laying marking stones to conduct social impact assessment studies.

It was against this backdrop that the state government and K-Rail decided to hold this debate but that too now appears to be in the dock, with two key persons strongly against the project deciding to back out, as they suspect that this is going to end up as nothing but a PR exercise .

And the statement of CPI-M state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Tuesday that "who is this Joseph C. Mathew" clearly indicates that the CPI-M is not keen on this debate either, as Vijayan has already made it clear that come what may, they will go ahead with the K-Rail project.

Source: IANS