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Time ripe to demand rail zone, says BJP

Thiruvananthapuram: Bharatiya Janata Party leader O. Rajagopal on Tuesday demanded the formation of a separate railway zone comprising the Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram and Salem divisions.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Rajagopal said a railway zone was the only way Kerala could be compensated for Railways’ neglect of the State and there could be no better time to achieve it than when major Left parties were supporting the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre.

He said that formation of railway divisions on linguistic lines was fraught with danger and went against the basic objectives of Indian Railways. Kerala MPs should lobby for the railway zone with the backing of the State Government. Unfortunately, Kerala MPs gave priority to politics and not development.

Tamil Nadu MPs, irrespective of their political affiliations, Ministers in the Union Government and the State Government were united when it came to development issues related to their State.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad’s statement disclosed that the decision on the new division was taken with the permission of Kerala MPs who had been consulted on the issue.

The division had become a fait accompli with all necessary infrastructure and technical facilities already in place.

It was difficult to take at face value the Railway Minister’s statement that a joint meeting of the Chief Ministers of Kerala and Tamil Nadu would be held in the presence of the Prime Minister to sort out the issue because of the impracticality of such a meeting and the lack of political will of the State’s leaders.

He said the MPs from Kerala did not raise any protest when the Railway Minister first made the announcement about Salem division.

Railways had also made the necessary budgetary allocation.

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