The Hindu : Jurisdiction being redrawn in a hurry?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 03, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Jurisdiction being redrawn in a hurry?

By Our Special Correspondent

HUBLI Sept. 2. The South Central Railway appears to be in undue hurry to implement the scheme to redraw the jurisdiction of the new divisions and zones eight months ahead of the date set by the Railway Board for the new arrangement to take place.

Even as the State has been stepping up its campaign for getting back the Torngagallu-Bellary-Guntakal line, which has been given to the Guntakal Division under the new arrangement, to the Hubli Division, the South Central Railway has gone out to integrate the line with the Guntakal Division.

On Sunday, according to the information available here, the Hubli Division authorities ceased wielding control over the movement of trains in the Tornagallu-Bellary-Guntakal sector entrusting the responsibility to the Guntakal Division.

Confirming this arrangement, sources in the Hubli Divisional Railway Office said that "we can also access these stations, but we have handed them over to Guntakal.''

This comes in the wake of a "secret move" made by the South Central Railway in getting options from personnel belonging to operating and commercial departments in the section already. The employees, according to information, were "forced'' to give their options in 24 hours, which was collected by a man specially deputed for the purpose. Most of the employees had to exercise the option in a hurry without knowing whether the line would remain with Hubli Division, which would be with the South Western Railway, or would go to Guntakal, which would remain in South Central Railway.

The hurried manner in which the South Central Railway is taking action to prove that the line in question was a part of Guntakal Division, comes as a refreshing contrast to the manner in which the South Central Railway had allowed the dual control of the line to persist for years under one pretext or the other.

Laying of a parallel broadgauge line years ago between Hospet and Guntakal to carry iron ore to Chennai for export, gave rise to the dual control of the line. As Hubli Division, under whose jurisdiction the Hospet-Guntakal line fell, had no broadgauge facility at that time, the new line was handed over to Guntakal for operations, while the parent division continued to look after the metergauge operations in the sector.

But what was a matter of operational convenience then, turned into administrative anachronism with the South Central Railway persisting with the dual control even after broadgauge system was made available to the Hubli Division. The demand for handing over the complete line to Hubli Division for operational efficiency was stalled under one pretext or the other by the South Central Railway authorities.

Using the dual control as an alibi, the 85-km Tornagallu-Guntakal line has been given to Guntakal Division along with the entire metergauge traction and a broadagauge branchline to Rayadrug in the new arrangement coming to effect from April 1 next. What the Hubli Division gets in the process is the control of the remaining part of the 110-meter Hospet-Guntakal line up to Tornagallu.

The State has been trying to get back the Tornagallu-Guntakal line to the parent division of Hubli on two grounds essentially. First, it originally belonged to Hubli Division. And, it is one of the highly remunerative lines known for iron ore traffic, which should firm up the finances of the new zone.

The interest on the part of the South Central Railway in keeping the Tornagallu- Guntakal line with itself is also manifest in the steps being taken to implement in advance the orders of the Railway Board.

The South Central Railway, which has to redraw the jurisdiction of new divisions of Guntur and Nanded and also that of Vijayawada and Secunderabad as a consequence, has not done anything there but has been busy concentrating on formalising the proposed redrawal of the boundaries between Hubli Division (which would go to South Western Railway) and the Guntakal Division (which would be retained by it) now.

This has led to suspicion that the South Central Railway wants to foreclose any rethinking on the arrangement sought by the State by integrating the line with the Guntakal Division without waiting till April next.

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Jurisdiction being redrawn in a hurry?