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`Include Coimbatore in Salem railway division'

Staff Reporter

Committee plans to send 5,000 telegrams to Lalu Prasad

Coimbatore: The meeting of the Salem Railway Division Protection Committee (SRDPC) on Saturday resolved to send a minimum of 5,000 telegrams to the Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad, on January 10 (Tuesday) seeking inclusion of the Coimbatore region in the proposed new railway division at Salem.

The meeting was presided by the president of the committee, K. Kalidass, and was attended by representatives from various political parties.

The meeting resolved to organise series of democratic forms of agitations. Despite being the second largest revenue earner in the Southern Railway next to Chennai, Coimbatore had been a victim of neglect and apathy.

In spite of all the potential, but for a handful of pairing trains, the population in this region continued to bank on quotas in various trains that originated from destinations in Kerala that passed through this region. Palakkad division had Rs. 120 crore revenue of which Rs. 84 crore came from Coimbatore, Tirupur and Erode regions. This was primarily the reason for Kerala resisting any attempts to de link Coimbatore region from the Palakkad division, the speakers pointed out.

Podanur, a suburb of Coimbatore was once a railway headquarters. After the reorganisation of state boundaries on linguistic basis, the headquarters was shifted to Palakkad. A geographically smaller State such as Kerala has two railway divisions having control over a larger portion of Tamil Nadu.

Tiruvananthapuram division stretches till the revenue districts of Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, while the Palakkad division has its boundaries extending up to the Nilgiris on this side, Jolarpattai on the North and up to Tiruchi on another side.

A delegation would also meet DMK president M. Karunanidhi and PMK leader S. Ramdoss.

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