Kozhikode: The GAIL Protest Samiti has decided to intensify their stir demanding to shift its route away to non-resident areas. The Samiti has formed a state-level protection committee at a convention held here on Saturday comprising protesters from other districts such as Malappuram and Kannur. “We have not tweaked our demand to realign pipeline route along resident areas. If any unavoidable piping is needed, the landowner should get four times the market price,” said M.I. Shanavas MP, who inaugurated the convention.
They also demanded a judicial probe into the alleged police atrocities on November 1 at Mukkam and surrounding areas. The convention pooh-poohed the ten times of the fair compensation price announced by the state as per the fair price value of 1962. “The land value in 1962 is meagre. The state’s peanut offer of the ten times of that value doesn’t reach anywhere near the present market value,” said Samiti leader C.P. Cheriya Mohammad.
The peaceful mode of protest will unfold along the aligned route by erecting protest huts by November 25, along with demonstrations by women and students. Mr Shanavas said he would wait for a week for appropriate action on the cops who allegedly unleashed violence on protesters. “After that, we will march on the ADGP office or all district collectorates,” he said.
Welfare Party state secretary Razak Palery cautioned protesters not to fall into the propaganda of GAIL claiming that almost pipe laying had been completed. “That’s utterly false. Only a few kilometres had been set ready to lay pipe,” he said. The elected Congress leader V.M. Sudheeran as their patron. The 51-member state committee formed has Cheriya Mohammed as its convener. IUML leader Ummer Pandikasala, representatives of Congress, SDPI and AAP attended.
