Malappuram: The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) will organise protests across the state against the government's inability to check the runaway rise in prices of essential commodities.
Protest meetings will be held in all the 941 grama panchayats and 87 municipalities across Kerala on Monday, said IUML state general secretary P M A Salam.
He was speaking to reporters after a high-level meeting of party leaders, chaired by IUML state president Panakkad Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal in Malappuram on Wednesday.
Not just food items, the rising prices were dragging down the construction sector with cement, steel, and sand going beyond the reach of common people, said Salam.
"This is creating deep crises in the lives of common people but the government is silent, it is lackadaisical about it," he said.
The government is not paying attention to the issue affecting the lives of people, said the IUML leader.
The party would be holding protest meetings in all the grama panchayats and municipalities Monday evening to press the government to control the price rise, he said.
'Coastal highway will displace thousands of families'
The proposed Rs 6,250-crore coastal highway, being funded by the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), will displace thousands of families and steal their livelihood in the state, said Salam.
The government is trying to bring in the project on the sly, he said.
Earlier, the government said the existing road along the coast would be widened to make the coastal highway.
"But now the government is trying to build a new coastal highway between the coast and the existing road, which is 500m away from the sea," Salam said. That's the alignment the government is working on, he said.
This means, thousands of people living along the coast will be displaced, he said. "The coastal residents are the poorest people in society. This project will steal their houses and livelihood and make their lives miserable," he said.
Salam said the people who will lose their land would not be adequately compensated, either.
The government is drawing a distinction between the national highway and the coastal highway when it comes to compensation, he said.
People who lost their land to NH 66 were compensated by the Union government. "The state government is planning to give a pittance to people who will lose land to the coastal highway saying it is a state government project," he said.
The IUML leader said the government should either back off or implement the project without hurting the coastal residents.
Govt pushing gender-neutrality through PTAs
The state government is again pushing gender-neutral education policy through PTAs despite facing resistance in the earlier attempts, said IUML state general secretary P M A Salam.
He said the party would oppose it.
Earlier, the government faced resistance when it tried to bring in gender equality and gender neutrality on school campuses, he said. "The strong protests were from all corners. They were not political or based on religion and community," he said.
When the IUML raised the subject with the chief minister, he assured the party that the government would talk to all stakeholders before rolling out the policy, Salam said.
"But now directions were given to schools to convene PTA meetings and procure the consent of the parents to roll out of the policy," he said.
The party had said this policy would create an atmosphere in schools where young adolescent students would be pulled away from moral values and religious awareness, he said.
The policy will deny youths an opportunity to grow up with strong moral underpinning, he said.
