The Hindu : Toranagallu section: Vedike plans rail roko on May 7

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 02, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Toranagallu section: Vedike plans rail roko on May 7

By Our Special Correspondent

HUBLI MAY 1. A rail roko agitation will be held across the State on May 7 to protest against the delay in transferring the Toranagallu-Bellary section from the Guntakal Division of South Central Railway to the Hubli Division of South Western Railway as per the notification issued by the Railways in February.

Disclosing this to presspersons here on Wednesday, the President of the Uttara Karnataka Abhivrudhi Vedike, Patil Puttappa, said no train would be allowed to leave or enter Karnataka from morning to midnight on that day.

The vedike appealed to the travellers to cooperate with it.

Mr. Puttappa said the vedike had appealed to Kannada organisations to participate in the rail roko. People should register their protest against the "ill treatment" being meted out to the State by the Railways.

It was time that MPs from the State raised their voice against the "injustice" being done to Karnataka. Vijay Sankeshwar, Dharwad North MP, had expressed support to the proposed rail roko. Mr. Sankeshwar had handed over his resignation letter to him to be forwarded to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

The new zone was formed to meet the demands of the people of the State.

However, problems were being created to make the zone ineffective.

The Toranagallu-Bellary section and iron ore being moved through it belonged to the State.

The section, which earned more revenue by way of transporting iron ore, should come under the new zone, he said.

Mr. Puttappa said if the Railways failed to act on the demand to include the section in the new zone, the people would be forced to intensify the agitation.

It was ridiculous to stall the implementation of the official notification issued by the Railway Ministry on the inclusion of the section in the new zone.

The delay in taking over the section by the zone after it came into being on April 1 was being attributed to technical reasons by the General Manager of the zone, Aga.

Mr. Putappa blamed Bandaru Dattatreya, Minister of State for Railways, for the delay in transferring the section from the Guntakal Division to the Hubli Division.

The minister had told a delegation from the State that pressure from Andhra Pradesh was the cause for the delay in transferring the section.

Mr. Puttappa accused Mr. Dattatreya of instigating the people of the Guntakal region to agitate for retaining the section with South Central Railway.

The statement of the minister that the section would be transferred once the agitation subsided indicated that the protest would be allowed to continue.

Mr. Puttappa wondered why Andhra Pradesh should eye something that belonged to Karnataka.

The State had not asked for any area that belonged to Andhra Pradesh to be included in the new zone, he said.

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Toranagallu section: Vedike plans rail roko on May 7