One-day hunger strike saged

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Protesting against the inordinate delay in works, the Karamana-Kaliyikkavila NH Action Council staged a hunger strike in front of the Secretariat on Monday.Former PWD Minister M Vijayakumar inaugurated the fast led by Gandhian P Gopinathan Nair. Leaders of various political parties addressed the gathering. Except Neyyattinkara MLA R  Selvaraj, the MLAs of the area did not take part in the strike.  Vijayakumar was the PWD Minister when the stone-laying ceremony for the NH-widening works was held more than a year ago. Addressing the gathering, Vijayakumar accused the UDF Government of lethargy regarding the works. He also extended the support of his party to the strike.  BJP leader O Rajagopal said that inauguration of the NH-widening works was held two times and still there was no progress in the works.  “Inaugurations were held during the time of E K Nayanar and V S Achuthanandan. Neither the UDF nor the LDF Government went ahead with the works,” he said. He too extended his party’s support for the protest against the lagging of works. Selvaraj MLA offered lime juice to Gopinathan Nair to end the fast by Monday evening.  The Action Council members said that though invitations were sent to all the MLAs in the area, only Selvaraj had turned up. “Though we had sent invitations to Sivankutty, Jameela Prakasam, N Sakthan and A T George, they didn’t come,” Action Council secretary Mannankal Ramachandran said.