An action committee of local residents on Friday prevented the attempts of the authorities to conduct an aerial survey as part of the proposed semi high speed railway project at Peruvattumthazhe near Vadakara in Kozhikode district. The protesters thronged the area shouting slogans till the survey works were stopped by the drone operators appointed by a Chennai-based company.
The Vadakara police said no case was registered against the protesters as they were ready for conciliatory talks. Also, the survey team did not file any complaint against the protesters, they said.
The action committee leaders made it clear that they would not cooperate with any survey activities without getting a clear picture on the reasonable compensation package. They alleged that the government was trying to cheat people without making any assurance on the same.
According to the action committee leaders, the proposed alignment was made without any consideration of the thickly populated areas. They also claimed that the plight of many families evacuated earlier in the name of various other welfare projects was enough to oppose the latest move.
It was the continuation of a series of local agitations earlier launched by the local residents in Vadakara and surrounding villages against the project.
They had alleged that the government was trying to ignore the local sentiments and going ahead with the project by using police force. There were also similar attempts to foil the survey by the local residents in the first week of November.