Kerala - Alappuzha   

Satyagraha staged for completion of bridge

ALAPPUZHA: In the first public indication of its current political leanings, the Alappuzha diocese of the Latin Catholic Church on Thursday invited former MP and senior Congress leader V.M. Sudheeran along with District Congress Committee president A.A. Shukoor to address the relay satyagraha of the Church-backed Chethi Coastal Development Forum near the Chethi bridge.

The satyagraha, which was on from November 5, was against the delay in completion of the Chethi bridge, a vital factor for traffic on the coastal road between Alappuzha and Cherthala.

The agitators were also alleging that Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac, in whose constituency the area falls, was purposely delaying the work.

However, barely hours after Mr. Sudheeran completed his speech, authorities produced a fitness certificate for the bridge allowing traffic on it and diocese spokesman Fr. Vijay Isaac said the satyagraha was called off since buses had begun plying on the bridge.

Earlier, Mr. Sudheeran came down heavily on the Left Democratic Front, saying that the trend of ministers going directly to police stations to secure the release of party workers was an insult to the Constitution. Citing the instance of Communist Party of India (CPI) Ministers C. Divakaran and K.P. Rajendran going to the police station to put pressure on the police to release two All India Youth Federation women activists, who had slapped a woman police officer, Mr. Sudheeran said the Ministers had breached their oath of office.

Demanding that a code of conduct should be formed for ministers, the veteran Congress leader alleged that the CPI (M) had replaced its ideology of Communism with that of “goondaism”.

“They are intoxicated with power and under the belief that they are above law, do not know what they are doing. Bullying the police into releasing party workers and getting goons to threaten people into following their orders is what the Left is specialising in now,” he said, adding that minutes before the meeting began, CPI (M) workers had intimidated the mike operator at Chethi into fleeing from the place.

“The police too have become indifferent to their duties. The report on priests and Catholic Association activists being manhandled in Alappuzha while protesting in a peaceful manner shows that the police are displaying their muscle power and courage in the wrong place and with wrong intentions,” he said.

Earlier, a protest march with women, nuns, priests and other residents of the area participating was conducted at Chethi.

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