Protest continues at Aaviyil Thodu against sewage plant
The Hindu
Mayor says apprehensions baseless, lists out benefits of project
The situation remained tense at Aaviyil Thodu near Vellayil in Kozhikode city on Tuesday as the local people continued to block the beach road, preventing officials of the Kozhikode Municipal Corporation from carrying out any sort of activities at the proposed site for a sewage treatment plant.
The people of Vellayil and Thoppayil wards, mostly fishermen, abandoned their work for the day to be part of the protest, vehemently opposing the STP project. They maintained that any measure of campaign by the corporation could not convince them about the need to construct the STP at Aaviyil Thodu.
With the clock ticking down to the Lok Sabha election counting day on Tuesday, opposing fronts are perceptibly edgy and poised to continue the rancorous skirmishing that marked the campaign season in Kerala. The United Democratic Front, led by the Congress, is seemingly basking in the “interim victory” granted by various exit polls. The UDF discerns that its poll strategy of turning the polls foremostly into a damning referendum on the Left Democratic Front government’s perceived failures rather than BJP’s “divisive politics” at the national level stood a fighting chance of paying off.