The Hindu : Front Page : Salem railway division inaugurated

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Friday, Nov 02, 2007
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Salem railway division inaugurated

Special Correspondent

Karunanidhi gives credit to amicable relationship between State and Centre

— Photo: E. Lakshmi Narayanan

AGAINST ODDS: Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi inaugurating the Salem Railway Division in Salem on Thursday. Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and Union Health Minister Anbumani are in the picture.

SALEM: A new railway division with its headquarters at Salem was inaugurated here on Thursday.

Inaugurating the fourth division in Tamil Nadu and the sixth in the Southern Railway zone Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said that as the State was having an amicable relationship with the Centre, it was possible to make the five-decade-old dream a reality.

Fighting for rights

Fighting for the rights should not degenerate into any confrontationist attitude, which would harm national integrity, he said.

Like rail lines that ran parallel, the State and Centre should function in a coordinated manner for good governance. A synchronisation of the movement between the engine and coaches in a train would alone ensure safety and pleasant journey.

Coalition

Likewise, allies in a coalition had to synchronise their activities to defeat forces that were trying to split the alliance.

“If our journey continues, it will bring in many more development projects to Tamil Nadu,” he said.

He said that many including alliance leaders, MPs, MLAs and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) leader S. Ramadoss had been responsible for the new division.

He said that he had approached the then Prime Minister Deve Gowda on this issue. But his promises, as in the case of Cauvery, had never been fulfilled, he said.

Maintaining that the brothers of Tamil Nadu and Kerala had sorted out the issue over the Salem division, Mr. Lalu Prasad, presiding over the function, said that the Railways would sanction certain projects for Kerala too. When he took over the Railways from the NDA government, it was in a bad shape. But it had turned around to post heavy profits now.

He also agreed to consider the demand of Mr. Ramadoss that Chennai be included in the freight corridor of the country.

Plea for land

Union Minister of State for Railways R. Velu, thanking the Chief Minister for his efforts, asked him to allot 50 acres for the new division free of cost and share at least 50 per cent of the cost for converting the 273-km Villupuram-Dindigul broad gauge into a double line.

Mr. Ramadoss, G.K. Mani (PMK), K.M. Kader Mohideen (IUML), Thol. Tirumavalavan (VCK), D. Pandian (CPI), N. Varadarajan (CPI-M), Union Ministers Anbumani Ramadoss, E.V.K.S. Elangovan and Subbulakhsmi Jegadeesan and State Ministers Veerapandi S. Arumugam, Durai Murugan and Arcot N. Veeraswamy spoke.

Southern Railway General Manager Rakesh Chopra presented mementoes and Member Traffic, Railway Board, V.N. Mathur, proposed a vote of thanks.

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