KOCHI: Survey for acquisition of land for the proposed rail link to Vallarpadam International Container Transhipment Terminal continued for the second day on Tuesday. There were no untoward incident or disruption of the survey to fix the alignment, said a Revenue official overseeing the work.

The survey continued under police protection due to protests raised by people in the Vaduthala area under the aegis of Janakiya Samithy. The samithy members tried to prevent Revenue officials from beginning the survey work on Monday. The protestors were removed by force by the police before commencing the works on Monday afternoon.

A 12-hour hartal called by the samithy in protest against the survey and against the police action on Monday passed off peacefully. Shops and business establishments in the area remained closed. Several buses that plied in the morning hours terminated their services at Pacchalam although private vehicles, two-wheelers and autorickshaws were seen on the road as normal. School buses and essential services were spared from the hartal.

The samithy was protesting against the Government decision to choose the alignment for the rail link to Vallarpadam that passed through Vaduthala. The samithy argued that Vaduthala, being a thickly populated area, should have been avoided when the alignment for the rail link was decided.

Meanwhile, the Revenue official informed that fixing of the alignment would be completed in two days and the Revenue survey would take up to three days. Besides officials from the Revenue Department, engineers from consultants KITCO are also involved in fixing the alignment.

Police flayed

The samithy, meanwhile, accused the police and district administration of high-handedness in the incidents that led to the forceful removal of protestors on Monday. A release from V. Justine Thomas, General Convenor, Technical, of the samithy, claimed that the district administration failed to convince the people that the alignment chosen was the most economic and the one affecting the least number of people.

It claimed that the police beat up women protestors and three persons, including the samithy convener, were injured.

It registered protest against what it described as provocative action on the part of the police and the district administration. It also claimed that the Mayor of Corporation of Kochi who was to have held discussions before beginning the survey had not done so.

The samithy decided to intensify protest against the survey process, the release said.

18 arrested

Meanwhile, the Ernakulam North Police held 18 persons from Vaduthala area as preventive arrests on Tuesday. The arrests were made in the morning, the police official.

Women's protest

The All India Mahila Samskarika Sanghatana, Ernakulam district committee, protested against the police action on women protestors at Vaduthala on Monday.

A release said the police turned into violators of all rules. It called for exemplary punishment for those policemen involved and urged the authorities to end the police interventions in popular protests.

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