Students Pledge News Dt 01.02.2022 – Reacting to the police attack on K-rail protestors in Kerala, Sourav Ghosh, General Secretary, AIDSO issued the following statement – “In a disgraceful act, the Kerala police brutally manhandled anti K – Rail protestors including State Committee members of AIDSO Govind Sasi and Ajith Mathew in Attingal, Thiruvananthapuram and arrested many of them. The protestors were peacefully demonstrating against the K – Rail authorities who had arrived to install survey stones in violation of a High Court directive against the same. Flaunting all norms and basic decency, the police who had accompanied the rail authorities set upon the protestors including the women and the elderly in a vicious and preordained manner. Shockingly, female protestors were manhandled by male police.
The protest in Attingal is a part of the state-wide movement against a semi – high speed railway project floated under the aegis of K – Rail, a joint venture company under Government of Kerala and Ministry of Railways which will have disastrous effects on the fragile environment of Kerala. The project will mutilate ecological environments and also cultivable lands. This project which is estimated by experts to cost Rs. 1.6 lakh crore by borrowing from Asian Development Bank will add to the outstanding debt of the state which already stands at Rs. 3.27 lakh crore.
What is most concerning is that it is a so-called Left government which seeks to implement such a disastrous project.
AIDSO demands that the Kerala state government to withdraw this project and to give exemplary punishment to the police who were involved in the brutal attacking in Attingal.”
