Mangalore: Disappointing Rail Budget Evokes Angry Reactions in Coastal Belt
Daijiworld Media Network—Mangalore (RS/CN)
Mangalore, Jul 3: The presentation of the railway budget in Parliament on Friday July 3, has disappointed coastal Karnataka and has caused anger among those who were expecting better from the railway ministry.
The resentment runs deeper because this coastal region of the state has two members of parliament (MPs). One of the MPs is new and had made the train an election issue while the other too never lagged behind in the matter.
P V Mohan, convener, Mangalore-Bangalore Railway Horata Samithi said that the budget had shocked the citizens of coastal Karnataka.
He said that the extension of the Mangalore-Bangalore train was a bad move as the passengers from Mangalore would get only a compartment with a capacity of 60 passengers which is a big loss.
Mohan added that if the train starts from Kannur then the whole train would be reserved by passengers from Kerala since it would pass through so many stations in that state.
“It will also lead to a misunderstanding between the citizens of the neighbouring states”, said Mohan adding that the demand for transforming Mangalore as divisional office had also fallen on deaf ears in this budget.
“Our demand was for two trains to Bangalore which we had in 1970-80 on meter gauge. But now, after the conversion of the track to broad gauge we have only one, which has also gone from our hands now”, he further added.
Mohan said that he would ill lead a delegation to meet the railway minister claiming that pursuance was the best medicine.
B Madhava, secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist) said, “The budget has not shown any interest in the coastal region and our demands are pending. There is no mention of a day train to Bangalore, a Hubli-Ankola train, and the Kaniyoor-Puttur-Kanhangad train which were our pressing demands.”
He added that the changing of tatkal booking to two days would be a problem as there will be a lot of rush to get tickets leading to much confusion.
Both Mohan and Madhava pointed out that the state government had failed to persuade the union railway minister. The chief minister of Karnataka B S Yeddyurappa had said that he was sending a proposal based on demands of the state, which seems to have been overlooked.