The Hindu : Kerala News : State delegation meets Manmohan

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Thursday, Feb 07, 2008
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Kerala

Kerala

State delegation meets Manmohan

Special Correspondent

Submits a slew of demands for inclusion in the Union and Railway Budgets

Stress on creation of a peninsular railway zone
Seeks restoration of rice quota

NEW DELHI: Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan led an all-party delegation of Members of Parliament from the State to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad with a slew of demands for inclusion in the Union Budget and the Railway Budget.

A key demand pertains to the creation of a peninsular railway zone headquartered in Kerala. This has been a long-pending demand of the State and in the memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister, the delegation pointed out that since Kerala first articulated the need for a separate zone, the number of railway zones had gone up from nine to 16.

Referring to the bifurcation of the Palakkad Railway Division to create a new Salem Railway Division, the delegation sought to remind the Centre about the assurance that Kerala would be adequately compensated. One of the assurances was that a coach factory would be set up. However, according to the delegation, formal approval for the project was still awaited. Besides a series of new railway lines, upgradation of some existing segments and starting new long-distance trains, the delegation demanded introduction of more suburban trains, extension of Sabiri Rail through Pathinamthitta-Punalur-Thiruvananthapuram and increase in the frequency of existing trains, including the Rajdhani Express and Sampark Kranti Express.

IT Corridor

Detailing the proposed Golden IT Corridor — the project that will connect Kochi with the IT hubs at Bangalore and Hyderabad — the delegation urged the Centre to clear the construction of a new broad gauge line from Nanjancode in Karnataka to Nilambur in Kerala in the forthcoming Railway Budget.

Though Union Minister of State for Railways R. Velu had ruled out a dedicated high speed rail corridor for Kerala, it featured in the memorandum. The demand is that a Mumbai-Kanyakumari dedicated high-speed corridor be sanctioned for Kerala. At their meeting with the Prime Minister, the delegation sought his intervention in restoring the rice quota for Kerala to its pre-reduction levels.

Rice quality

At his media briefing on the two meetings, Mr. Achuthanandan said that while the Centre said it had cut Kerala’s allocation because the State had not lifted the rice, it had not mentioned the fact that the quality of rice was poor. Another reason for the poor lifting, he said, was the nominal difference in the rate of open market rice and APL rice provided through the Public Distribution System.

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