Udupi: Protestors Stage ‘Rail Roko’ at Local Railway Station
Pics: Hemanath Padubidri
Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SP)
Udupi, Feb 15: Agitated over the cold-shouldering of their persistent demands for extending Bangalore-Mangalore train to Karwar, or at least to divert some of the compartments of the said train to Karwar, and angered at the diversion of the train to Kannur instead, the protestors staged ‘Rail Roko’ agitation at the local railway station on Tuesday February 15. They were also angry at the non-tabling of the proposal to divert some of the compartments of the said train to Karwar, contrary to previous assurances, at the pre-budget meeting held recently at Pune.
The protestors led by Udupi Railway Yatri Sangha president, R L Dias, and local MLA, Raghupati Bhat, stopped Ernakulam - Pune ‘Poorna Express’ train for about 30 minutes at the railway station.
On this occasion, Raghupati Bhat said that they had staged the protest symbolically today to send a clear signal to the authorities concerned that the people of the district will not tolerate injustice. He asked the railways to include the proposal to extend the Bangalore-Mangalore train to Karwar in the next budget. He warned that if the proposal does not find a place in this budget, protests will be organized on the next day of the presentation of the budget itself all over the district, and that all the trains moving through the town will be stopped at the local station for 24 hours.
Former MLA, U R Sabhapathy, R L Dias, district BJP president, Udayakumar Shetty, municipal vice-president, Bharati Chandrashekhar, zilla panchayat president, Katpady Shankar Poojary, JDS district president, Deviprasad Shetty, representatives of a number of organizations, retired government officials etc, participated in the protest.
The protestors were arrested and released later.