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Railways
Oriyas -the Railway's Outcast The Ministry of Railways never bother to serve Orissa in even fair proportion to benefits they derive from this State.To quote a former leader, Orissa incidently got linked with rail track because the British wanted to link two ports of Calcutta and Madras. To say the least, about 45% of the total tracks of SE Rlys pass through Orissa, but Orissa gets a step motherly treatment in the matter of passenger amenities, modernisation of stations ,expansion and improvement of tracks or introduction of new trains.The South Eastern Railways carry about 120 million MT of Iron Ore and Coal, out of which a substantial portion, from the mines of Bolani, Gorumahisani, Badam Pahar,Talcher etc. of Orissa. From Lakhmannath Road to Bhadrakh of SE Rlys runs through Orissa, similarly the railway extends up to Jharsuguda in western side. These tracks takes the minerals and finished products to steel plants and ports besides carrying passengers. As if this was not enough after formation of new Zones and new Railway Recruitment Boards in West Bengal and else where, the only Railways Recruitment Board (RRB) of Orissa located at Bhubaneswar which was hitherto supplying panel of candidates to S E railway, has been debarred for recruiting Asst. Station Masters, Goods Guard ,Asst Loco Pilot and all other categories of staff for SE Railway. Now this railway gets candidates from RRBs operating at Ranchi, Kolkata, Malda etc. who are unwilling to work in Orissa area.Malda located at remote north Bengal has no link whatsoever with this railway. On the other hand educated Oriya boys are deprived of this facility in the already shrinking government job market. It is unfortunate that Orissa’s MPs and MLAs are not bothering about this step motherly treatment against the State and many of them are simply ignorant of it. Vishakhapatnam Division of East Coast railway has a small portion of track in Andhra region; but because of alertness of Telegu MPs, 30% vacancies of Visakhapatnam division is filled up from panels obtained from RRB, Secunderabad to safeguard the interest of Telegus. Recent suspension/late running of of Orissa bound trains via Adra and Kharagpur due to Maoist problem is another indication of callous attitude of Mamata Banerjee towards Orissa . While Calcutta has alternate route for various trains to Delhi, via Asansol ,by suspending track at night in Kharagpur division of West Bengal area persons from Orissa are suffering. Why cant the railway run Utkal Kalinga Express Nilachal etc via Sambalpur ,Jharsuguda, Bilphpur to Delhi at least temporarily? Why Oriyas to suffer because of law and order problem at West Bengal?. Railways must be advised to run Kalinga Utkal via Sambalpur and Jharsuguda. It will be cheaper and faster also, as about 400 kms distance will be reduced. The Special Secretary for Railways in Orissa Government are busy looking after their own interest and posting instead of interest of Orissa. Will the Orissa MPs and MLAs rise from their slumber, lethargy and ignorance and instead of spending their time and energy in petty quarrels amongst themselves, look into this phpect to protect the rights of Oriyas? Yours Sincerely |
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