Bhubaneswar:9/January/2009: Civil Society of Orissa will demand railway connectivity to Kandhamal.
So the members of the Civil Society will stage dharana in front of the Orissa East Coast Railways (ECOR) headquarters here on 3 February. They will also present a detailed picture of the continuous neglect and step motherly attitude of the Indian Railways to Orissa It seems that they have lost high hopes pinned on Kalyan Coomar Jena. People from all walks of life in Orissa were very happy as Mr.Jena took over reins of Indian Railways. Least said is better about the Chairman of Railway Board, said many members of the Civil Society. During Jena’s tenure, Bihar got the maximum and Orissa as usual suffered a lot. There are only cosmetic changes and lollypops for Orissa, lamented they. So the leading members of the Civil Society are furious with the Indian Railways authorities. They have decided to vent anger in public in a peaceful way on 3 February here. Their main demand is to connect Kandhamal with railways network. People from all walks of life participated in the meeting held here on 7 January and they voiced the demand for new rail line in Kandhamal. They were unanimous over the issue as they felt that once the connectivity will be there, the problem will eased. Professor Chitta Baral, leading voice of NROs gave out details how Orissa has been neglected during Lalu Prasad Yadav regime when Mr.Jena is the Chairman of the Board. Among others Braja Kishore Tripathy, MP, Sibaji Pattnaik, former MP, Dhananda Mishra, Narendra Mishra, Sudarsan Das also raised pertinent issues. Engineer BC Praharaj, Ajaya Pattnaik, Bimal Mishra,Rajesh Mishra and SN Mishra pointed out the requirement of the state so far railways infrastructure is concerned. Political personalities including Sura Jena, Biswanath Mohapatra,Tapasi Praharaj, Deba Parija, Bikram Swain vented their ire against the authorities. Social activists like Tusar ray, Sashiprabha Bindhani, Madhu Bhai, Manoj Jena, Abhaya Singh, Pradipta Pradhan, Dillip Sabat also spoke on the occasion. More than 70 members of the Civil Society and at least 20 from Kandhamal participated in the brain storming. ECOR was represented by TK Joshi and Sanjay Mishra. Civil Society has decided to organize a meeting prior to 3 February in Kandhamal to raise awareness. It has been decided to publicize a composite document on Rail neglect in Orissa. The meeting was organized by Agami Odisha, Swabhiman Odisha Munch, Loksamukhya and Focus Orissa. All Participant organizations almost vowed to make the people of Orissa aware about Railway neglect and fight for the Railway infrastructural development in Orissa. Er.Lalit Mohan Pattnaik of Agami Orissa coordinated the meeting. Civil Society favor K'mal rail http://www.tathya.in/2008/story.asp?sno=2499
