HASSAN: State Communist Party of India (Marxist) secretary G.N. Nagaraj has appealed to Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad to direct Railway officials to complete work on the Hassan-Mangalore sector so a direct train from Mangalore to Bangalore via Hassan could be started.

Speaking to The Hindu here on Tuesday, Mr. Nagaraj said that a State CPI(M) delegation had recently met Mr. Prasad in New Delhi and appealed to him to start Bangalore-Thiruvananthapuram and Mangalore-Bangalore trains.

Further, he said, work on the conversion of the Hassan-Mangalore track to broad gauge had been lingering for the past 10 years.

This was probably because following the running of trains between Mangalore and Mumbai, private buses that had been operating on this route began to lose customers as trains became the more favoured mode of travel. These buses then began operations between Mangalore and Bangalore.

He feared that this transport lobby was obstructing the completion of the track-conversion work.

Mr. Nagaraj said the Railway Minister had even announced in his budget that a train would be run between Mangalore and Bangalore. He appealed to the Railway Minister to run push-pull trains between Hassan and Bangalore via Arsikere until the Mangalore-Hassan track-conversion was completed.

Nuclear deal

Regarding the Indo-US nuclear deal, Mr. Nagaraj said, "The people of India abhor the US' hegemonic foreign and military policies as shown through its occupation of Iraq, its support to Israel and other such matters. Therefore, it would be unacceptable to the people of India for its Government to partner with the US in such a deal."

`Doubts remain'

Mr. Nagaraj said that despite all assurances given by the Prime Minister on the deal, doubts still remained in the minds of the people. This was because the US Act clearly stipulated that India's foreign policy should be congruent with that of the US.

Moreover, there were more than 11 instances, he said, in which it was stated that India should cooperate with the US in its plans to contain Iran's nuclear programme.

He said this clearly revealed the intentions of the US government to make India a junior partner with it in its international designs.

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