Yatri Sangha to stage rail roko today

Speaking to mediapersons here, Sangha President R L Dias said that three express trains will be stopped for more than half an hour. Mumbai-Mangalore Express, Ernakulam-Poona Express and Hapa-Ernakulam Express will be stopped during the rail roko.

The coastal district has been neglected by the Railways. There was no sign on the extension of Bngalore-Mangalore train to Karwar. The IRTTC (Inter zone Railway Time Table Conference) did not have any proposal on the extension of the train to Karwar. A letter on the rail roko has aleready been written to the authorities concerned on February 1, he added.

The protest will be led by MLAs Raghupathy Bhat and Lalaji R Mendon. Pejawar seer Vishweshatheertha Swamiji will flag off the protest.

He said the South West Railways had okayed the extension of Bangalore-Mangalore train to Karwar in June 2009. It had even assured to inaugurate the train on August 9 or 10.

However, the train was falgged off by the Union Minister of State for Railway E Ahammed to Kannur on December 14, 2009.

“The information sought under RTI Act has revealed that the Mangalore-Bangalore train which was extended to Kannur is running on loss. We have already filed a writ in the court questioning it. Every bogie has 72 seats. Instead of running 17 bogies to Kannur in the monring, we had asked to run 10 bogies to Karwar. The proposal is still before the Railway Board. However, it has not been discussed in IRTTC meeting, which needs to be opposed by the people of the region,” he added.

“Though Udupi is a religious centre, Ernakulam-Pune Express, Amrithsar-Dehradun Express and Mumbai-Mangalore Superfast train do not stop in Udupi. Hence, the people of the region have been neglected by the authorities. Moreover, MPs of the region D V Sadananda Gowda, Nalin Kumar Kateel, Ananth Kumar Hegde, B Raghavendra have failed to raise their voice against the injustice in the Parliament,” he lamented.