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K-Rail project: Kerala HC questions Centre’s silence
The high court also asked if the size of the survey stone was accepted by concerned agencies and prior permission was sought for laying stones in private land.
Questioning the Centre’s silence over the proposed high-speed rail project K Rail, the Kerala high court on Thursday stated,“The Centre has a major equity in the project. But it is yet to reveal what would be its role in the K-Rail project.”
The high court (HC) posed a series of queries before the Centre and the state governments while hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the rail project.
Justice Devan Ramachandran asked both to explain whether the ongoing social impact study was approved by them and if it will be going through the part of Pondicherry, Mahe which is sandwiched between two districts of Kannur and Kozhikode. Earlier, the court had expressed surprise over the Union governments’ continued silence over the project.
The high court also asked if the size of the survey stone was accepted by concerned agencies and prior permission was sought for laying stones in private land.
The court directed both to furnish answers to these questions and stated that the petitions will be taken up again after the summer break in May.
The court also observed that petitioners need to worry about land acquisition at this juncture as the state government assured the court that its intention was only to conduct a social impact study. But many affected people asked that for such a study, stone laying was not necessary.
The state is in the midst of a fierce protest against the project. Opposition parties and a section of environmentalists have been opposing the ₹63,941 project, which is expected to reduce travelling time from north to south of the state to four hours from present 12 hours, saying it was unscientific and impractical and posed huge financial burden on the state. But the ruling front insists that it will be a game-changer and will attract enough investment and reduce carbon emission considerably. The state has announced that it will be carbon-neutral by 2050.
Last month, chief minister (CM) Pinarayi Vijayan had called on Prime Minister (PM) Modi requesting his intervention to approve the project. Later the CM had claimed that the PM was quite sympathetic to the project and expected a fast-track clearance. Even at the on-going party congress in Kannur (north Kerala) the CM reiterated that the government will go ahead with the project and expect a green signal from the Centre at the earliest.
