Date:12/01/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/12/stories/2008011254410400.htm

New Delhi

MP calls on Lalu Prasad

Special Correspondent

‘Concede region’s demands in Railway Budget’
He reiterates demands for several new train services

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Bellary in Karnataka, G. Karunakara Reddy, called on Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, Union Minister of State for Railways R. Velu and Railway Board Chairman K.C. Jena, and urged them to select only Kannadigas for group D posts that fall vacant in Karnataka.

In a separate memoranda, Mr. Reddy brought to their attention the current agitation in the State over preference being given to outsiders in the recruitment and pointed out that it was the poor who applied for such posts.

He urged them to include the various long-pending demands of the people of Bellary region in the Railway Budget for 2008, including introduction of direct trains between Chennai and Mumbai via Bellary and Hospet, between Koppal and Gulbarga via Bellary and Guntakal, and push-pull trains between Guntakal and Kottur, Bellary and Koppal, and Hospet and Bellary, augmentation of Hampi Express with two more general compartments, five more sleeper coaches and two more AC three tier coaches.

He called for early completion of Kottur-Harihar line, modernisation of Hospet and Bellary railway stations, construction of a new track to connect Challekere and Tumkur, re-introduction of all the trains that were plying before the gauge conversion work between Guntakal and Hubli, extension of Bellary and Miraj train to Guntakal, reversion of the departure time of the Amaravathi Express from Bellary to 7.25 a.m., renovation of the Bellary Cantonment Railway Station and construction of railway bridges on Solapur-Mangalore section near Kannavi Veerabhadra temple and on Ankola-Gooty section near Sudha Cross in Hospet in Bellary district.