Newindpress
Mangalore, Oct 23: Unequivocally, Mangalore-Bangalore train issue has exposed a bitter truth that the region lacks in political will.
With promises on commissioning of train services between Mangalore and Bangalore never kept, politicians have been made to look like a bunch of bumbling fools. Never before, have politicians from the region been jeered and treated with disdain in public.
Mangalore-Bangalore railway line, after a decade, was partially opened for traffic in December 2003. The enthusiasm at which the first train was flagged off from Mangalore to Kabaka Puttur now has been replaced with seething anger in public.
Reflecting on the ease at which mega projects like all weather port, table-top airport among others were completed in Mangalore, citizens have failed to understand the needless fuss over commissioning of Mangalore-Bangalore railway line closed for passenger traffic since 1990s.
When trial run of trains begun in January 2006, the politicians were already heckling among themselves taking credit for reviving the train services. The disappointment was hard to fathom when the section was made fully operational for goods traffic from May 2006.
A Forum led by P V Mohan with political ambitions declared that Mangalore-Bangalore train service would be a Ugadi gift. When that did not happen Mangalore MP and BJP state president DV Sadananda Gowda took of time from politics to delcare that train would be inaugurated after September 15.
Mohan stirred up another mirage of sorts by declaring that Union Minister for Railways Laloo Prasad Yadav would personally inaugurate the train on October 2. When South Western Railways (SWR) General Manager Praveen Kumar endorsed the same date, hopes in the region soared. Just days before the deadline, Mohan in a media conference said date had been postponed to October 21 and declared that he would go on a hunger strike if it was postponed again.
However, the efforts by this newspaper to seek details from Mohan on his next course of action, proved futile. Gowda and former minister Nagaraj Shetty in a joint press conference in August had bragged that they had clinched a best bargain from PWD secretary for public.
"We had agreed to ban traffic on Shirady Ghats only if the Mangalore-Bangalore train services were started from October 21," they said. With traffic on Shirady Ghats banned and with Mangalore-Bangalore train nowhere in sight, it is mandarins who are having the last laugh.