BJP workers protest against Manithi team at rly station

Thiruvananthapuram: BJP workers staged a protest at Central railway station here on Monday, alleging that railway authorities were colluding with the state government by providing undue facilities for the travel of three workers of Manithi, a forum of progressive women, in a Trichi-bound train.
Workers under the leadership of BJP district president S Suresh protested at the railway station when the Manithi members reached the railway station after chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and top police officers refused them appointment for a meeting. They were on their way back to Madurai via Thiruvananthapuram after their plans to trek Sabarimala went astray and were subsequently forced to leave Pathanamthitta on Sunday itself.

The BJP workers alleged that a coach reserved for people with physical disabilities was given exclusively for the travel of Manithi workers. “We have taken up the matter with station director Rajesh Chandran and we are told that it was the police who put the Manithi activists in the special coach. This amounts to denying the rights of several people with disabilities travelling in the same train. The director has given assurance in writing that they would take appropriate action,” Suresh said. He alleged that the ladies were having links with Left extremist organizations.

According to railway authorities, no train service was delayed or disrupted owing to the BJP protest. Meanwhile, eggs were hurled at the train by suspected BJP-RSS workers at Neyyattinkara, where the train didn’t have a stop.

BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai, who visited general secretary Sobha Surendran, who has been on a hunger strike in front of the secretariat for six days, said that the party would continue the protest until the government protects beliefs of people.