Karnataka - Hassan   

Activists detain train in Hassan

Protest: Activists of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, led by district president K.T. Ravindra Kumar detaining the Mysore-Shimoga Express at Hassan Railway Station on Tuesday.

HASSAN: Activists of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike led by its district president K.T. Ravindra Kumar detained the Mysore-Shimoga Express at Hassan Railway Station for more than 40 minutes on Tuesday. The train arrived from Mysore at 11.40 a.m. and was detained till 12.25 p.m. This was part of their State-wide agitation in protest against what they termed ill-treatment of Kannadigas by the Ministry of Railways.

Mr. Ravindra Kumar said the South Western Railway had been conducting written tests in Bangalore, Mysore and Hubli to fill up 4,700 posts in which more than 3,000 students who had qualified were from Bihar. The rest of them were from States other than Karnataka, they alleged. “This is not the first time that the Railways has shown such apathy to the people of the State. Even Group-D employees recruited earlier, were from Bihar because Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav belonged there, he alleged.

The activists demanded that employment opportunities be given to the local people and also to implement the recommendations of the Sarojini Mahishi Committee in toto.

Mr. Ravindra Kumar welcomed Ms. Sarojini Mahishi’s statement that she would speak to the Prime Minister on the injustice done to the people of the State. “We will intensify our agitation if the Railways does not set right the anomalies and will not even hesitate to detain goods trains transporting iron ore to the Mangalore harbour,” he said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Activists detain train in Hassan
Revanna hits out at former MLA
Job scheme in more areas

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu