Mangalore: Kannur Express - Frustration in Air, Lack of Unity to Blame
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)
Mangalore, Dec 15: Coastal Karnataka has always been facing the same problem. People living here had to wait for a decade for the train services to resume on Bangalore route. The highway widening work between Suratkal and Bantwal is limping since last, with no end in sight in near future, with people concerned shifting blame on each other. Their demand for stopping of the movement of ore trucks on district roads was acceded to only after several bridges and roads were reduced to bumpy tracks, threatening to collapse any time. The Shiradi Ghat road was repaired after a considerable delay, only to be damaged within months of its reopening. Now, the train service to Bangalore has been extended to Kannur instead of Karwar, although more trains are required on Karwar route and that Kerala has enough train services. The list is quite long.
Perhaps everyone knows that the people of the twin-districts do not unite for a cause. For every issue, there will be groups supporting and against it. Again, these groups get divided into smaller groups on religious or political lines or under different leaders. The people of the coast were witness to the fact that some of the protests organized for repairing of the highway, by different political groups, had only a handful of people participating in them. Even for protests for genuine reasons, unless the people are themselves facing the problems, they never come out of their homes to join the agitations. They seem to prefer to speak agitatedly about different causes in private conversations alone. That is why, only meetings organized by political parties, irrespective of the causes for which they are organized, have sizeable attendance, perhaps because their activists and local leaders bring people known to them either by convincing them or by paying to the participants.
This is quite contrary to the scenario in even small villages in Kerala, located hardly 15 kms away from the city. Even village level agitations and meetings, organized for minor causes, draw good crowds there. The people there seem to get united for genuine causes. Their leaders put in genuine efforts, knowing well that neglecting the people can spell doom to their political career, unlike in the west coast of Karnataka. In the twin-districts, people look upon with suspicion if a man takes interest in some issues and doggedly pursues them, and feel that he has some personal agenda behind his dogged perseverance. It may be recalled that resumption of train services to Bangalore, day-train between city and Bangalore etc., were realized more because of the interest taken by a few organizations and after a lapse of several years, rather than any pressure brought by political leaders, and some projects get some impetus only when election draws nearer. Strangely, when the government announces some schemes or projects for the twin-districts, several leaders immediately jump into action to take credit.
In the case of the extension of the night train to Kannur, the train normally was booked fully over a month in advance. Its extension to Kannur will only create problems for the railway passengers. A minister of state from Kerala could achieve what all the bigwigs from here could not. He had promised to extend the train, and saw to it that it was done.
On Monday December 14, office bearers of West Coast Railway Passengers Development Committee, comprising R L Diaz, Hanumant Kamat and others, met Deepak Krishna, general manager of Southern Railways at the local railway station, with a demand to stop the extension of the train to Kannur and to extend it to Karwar at least four days in a week. Will their demands be fulfilled? It is anybody's guess.