Sitting in her house built on the land her father bought for her, 75-year-old Arifa Beevi is on the verge of tears as she asserts, “We are not going anywhere. They will have to remove us by force." Arifa is among the many people residing in the Kunnuvaram village of Kizhuvilam panchayat in Chirayinkeezhu, on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram, through the heart of which the alignment of Kerala government’s ambitious SilverLine semi high-speed railway project has been marked. Protests against the land acquisition process for the controversial project have gathered momentum over the past weeks, with residents saying they can’t afford to lose their homes over a mega infrastructure venture that they believe will be of no benefit to them.
"My father used to tell me that I should live here till my last breath. It was my son who took out a loan and built a house here 10 years ago. Is the world going to end for the government if it doesn’t get our land? We don't need the compensation money. What we need is the right to live on our own land. We won't be able to find another place with the money we get as compensation. If they want to evict us, they will have to drag us out by force,” says Arifa Beevi, who lives with her son’s family of four.
Despite growing opposition from various quarters, the CPI(M)-led Left government in Kerala has made it clear that it will not abandon the SilverLine project, which proposes to directly connect the northern (Kasaragod) and southern (Thiruvananthapuram) parts of the state and reduce the present travel time of 12 hours to four hours. The estimated cost to complete the 540-km rail project, spearheaded by the K-Rail (Kerala Rail Development Corporation Ltd), is Rs 63,941 crore.
The rail project alignment has been marked through four wards of Kunnuvaram village. Survey stones have already been placed in the compounds of a number of the houses in the region. Some residents – like Arifa – firmly refused to allow entry to the officials, and the stones were installed outside their compounds instead. Most houses in the region have put up boards denying entry to people associated with K-Rail.
“The alignment has been marked through four wards in the panchayat. Of this, Ward 2 will be affected the most. Around 15 houses will be lost in that ward alone. There are some people who would lose both their houses and land, while others would only lose their land,” Saleena JS, a panchayat member from Kunnuvaram, tells TNM. Saleena is a Congress member in the panchayat ruled by the CPI(M).
Several people in the village had joined a regional protest organised on March 22 at Attingal, the town closest to Chirayinkeezhu, and a state-wide protest on March 21 in Thiruvananthapuram. The Congress party had moved a no-confidence motion against the panchayat, which was rejected because of CPI(M)’s majority. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has reiterated his stand that the government will go ahead with the project, adding it was “for the future of our children”.
Bahuleyan (70) broke down while registering his protest against the government move. “This is my village, the place where I was born, and where I have been living. I worked in the Gulf for many years and invested my earnings here. I bought this plot for my daughter,” says Bahuleyan, standing in front of a house under construction. His daughter Mini has been building the house and they are planning to shift in here in April. However, a survey stone has now been placed in a corner of the compound.
“We are unable to comprehend this. I feel like someone has set my heart on fire. We were living in peace until this project fell on our heads out of nowhere. We don’t need K-Rail. We need Keralam. We have no need to travel to Kasaragod. If we have to, we will just use one of the other trains,” says Sobhana, Bahuleyan’s wife.
“If he (Pinarayi Vijayan) wants to take our land, he will have to kill us. He can shoot us and then use our land. This move is going to impact our coming generations too. We don’t need a compensation amount from the government. That will not be enough to build a house like this. We need the decent life we are used to living,” Bahuleyan adds.
Devadasi, an elderly resident, is also aggrieved. She is adamant that she will not give away her land, for which she pays tax, to the government. “My husband died and I live alone. If the government forcibly takes my land, I will also die here. They came here accompanied by the police and placed a survey stone on my land. The Chirayinkeezhu Sub Inspector made me sit and watch quietly as the officials installed the stone,” she says.
Protests against the project are becoming increasingly rampant, even turning tense in many places. The government, however, has refused to relent, and has approached the Union government for its nod. The state budget for the fiscal year has also allocated Rs 2,000 crore for the project.
Baby, a resident of Kolazhy panchayat at Kottekad in Thrissur, is concerned that she may have nowhere to go if she is evicted from her house. “It has been 40 years since we built the house. If the government asks us to leave, we have no option but the streets,” says Baby, who is employed under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. “Besides, my son is sick and needs Rs 8,000 for his medicines every two months. We can’t just go to any rural area. We need a place with access to proper medical and other facilities. As of now, we are somehow managing by working hard,” she adds.
Baby is not convinced that the government compensation would be enough for her to take care of her sick son and live a comfortable life. “We will never get a house like this in our life again," she says.
Francis Emmatty, another panchayat resident, flays the government for not providing people with enough clarity on the process. "It is being said that the alignment has been marked through the area behind my house. None of us have received any clarity on this. We don't know what a buffer zone is or how much compensation we are entitled to. I built this house 37 years ago after a lot of hard work. I am 66 now and not very healthy anymore. I will not be able to build another house at this age. The residents here are worried because we also have no clue about the social impact study conducted for the project. We have sleepless nights. There is no official intimation from anyone. We only get to know about these developments from the news," he says.
"If the project is implemented, there will be five crossings on Kottekkad-Mundur Road. How do people reach their workplaces or students go to school on time after crossing all these?' he asks.