Jaya Jagannath,
Shame to say but Indian
political system is so corrupt that ministers at centre enjoy their
power for their own gain and consider their position as their
parental property. A cheap tactics of winning the election by
reducing all high valued commodities before elections to fetch votes
and then increasing the price by double the reduced cost after
elections. Needless to say, they dog fight for power, black mail the
aspiring group of parties demanding for a special ministry ( A
concept very similar to how a kidnaper demand for huge ransom to
release the captive ), and then they start their dirty game of
misusing the their power and thus neglecting the rest of the
country, they start dumping all benefits to own constituency, state
and people.
Our state Orissa seems to be cursed forever. Always ignored,
neglected, betrayed and dealt with stepmother hood attitude of
centre government when it comes to either allocating revenue for our
state development, sanctioning a central university, releasing
disaster relief or even providing minimum basic livelihood. The
recent stroke of disappointed is railway ministry releasing less
than half of the demand for railway developments.
Facts of disappointment :
Orissa generates more than Rs. 5000 crores of revenue per year
from Railways, but in return railway ministry sanctioned only Rs
715.22 crore this year for railway developments. (Mamata banerjee
during her earlier roles as railway minister had given just Rs. 178
crore in 2001 2002, Rs. 194 crore in 2003 2004 and Lalu prasad
yadav had given Rs. 949 crore in 2008 - 2009 )
Orissa propose for the construction of North-South and East-West
railway corridor
Though the state had demanded for setting up of a coach factory in
the state, a new coach factory is now being set up in Kolkata, which
already has densest of rail infrastructures in the country.
Orissa had sought 14 new train against which only six trains have
been given. (Mamata has announced in her budget 53 rail connectivity
proposals of which 22 are in West Bengal )
Against Orissas proposal for the increase in frequency of five
trains, only one train has been allotted.
Our state demanded three new coaching depots and introduction of
new EMU or DMU trains which were not agreed upon.
The union Budget does not have increased allocation of funds for
KBK districts (While cyclone in West Bengal special assistance of Rs
1000 crores is allocated ,there is nothing for Orissa relating to
2008 floods )
Railway Budget at a glance :
Total budget expenditure for the country for 2009-10 will Rs
10,28,032 cr. Total Investment of Rs 40,745 crore in the current
fiscal ( up from Rs 36,773 crore in the previous financial year ),
Rs 12,393 crore on railway research, Rs 5,135 crore on Road safety
works (road over and under bridges), Rs 1,906 crore on gauge
conversion, Rs 1,797 crore on machinery and plants. Rs 2,054 crore
for restoration of dismantled lines. Rs 2,921.70 crore for building
new lines. Rs 1,526 crore for amenities of its staff and passengers.
Rs 4,247.28 crore on locomotives. Rs 3,616.61 crore on the
carriages. Rs 8,121 crore needed ( against Rs 11,066 crore in the
previous fiscal ). Total expenditure amounting to Rs 82,504 crore
and total receipts at Rs 90,626 crore.
A decade long tale of negligence
:
Broadly visualizing the scenario, Orissa (The third best preferred
state for investment in India, the most favorite destination of
industrialists, Front runner at progress report among all smart
states )is still treated like a step son of central government.
Extreme negligence by Railways has paralyzed Orissa and revenue is
being looted since ever. Ever seen the net like woven rail network
in UP, Bihar and West Bengal, in Orissa there is only two links (
Howrah - Bombay and Howrah - Madras ), that too been
non-electrocuted for decades. Orissa was loosing more than Rs. 3600
crores of revenue per year to the hands of West Bengal Govt. due to
mineral ore transportation via Haldia Port. Ores instead of Paradeep
port and minerals were looted from Orissa thru following five feeder
rail links to Haldia port thru howrah - Bombay main line. Imagine
these 5 railway link lines were like 5 fingers of a hand that was
put inside Orissa's pot and stealing revenue since decades.
Orissa MP Sri. Anant Nayak was the first person to raise an alarm
on this issue in Parliament. In 1973 Sir Biju Pattanaik planned to
rail link Bansapani with Jakhapura to reach Paradeep Port. During
1993-94 Railway minister Kanhu Charan Lenka executed the project and
it got completed with the catalytic efforts of Sri. Naveen Pattanaik
with a green signal from Railway minister Sri. Lalu Prasad Yadav (
Of course with another holy intension of connecting Bihar with Puri
dham in a shortest possible rail link) followed by extension of
several trains to Puri. Thus our main objective was partially
achieved. Other potential revenue generating rail links like
Bimalagarh - Talcher, Keonjhar - Badam Pahar, Keonjhar - Barsuan is
still to be constructed and prioritized.
In Howrah - Madras coast line Vijayanagaram - Kharagpur section
that covers whole of Orissa was deliberately ignored till 1993. All
trains have to run on diesel engines in this section inside Orissa
and rest part of eastern railway was electrocuted. This was like an
insult to Orissa. In 1993 then railway minister Sri. Kanhu charan
Lenka under guidance and supervision of his majesty Sir. Biju
Pattanaik planned and started Electric - traction work and completed
the same in 2005.
Paradeep Port was intentionally not connected to any of the mines
or Industries in Orissa, to ensure Orissa govt. loose the custom
export duties. Recently it got connected to Howrah - Madras main
line ( after 30 years of the port been built ).
Internal rail links were neither connecting major cities of Orissa
to each other nor to our only port Paradeep.
Major city railway station were maintained like "C" grade stations
due to lack of funding. Bhubaneswar being the capitol of Orissa, was
having only 3 low grade platforms, underdeveloped comparative to any
rail junctions in AP or WB.
Our MPs during those days were neither sincere nor regular to
Parliament. If few of them went to parliament they were sitting at
far corners and sleeping for times. Back home they were kept
ignorant of all these and were even in some cases told by party
state head office not to raise such issues in Parliament. Even some
MPs were unable to read and analyze the railway time table and map.
Due to lack of proper rail line network inside Orissa, each day
around 20 to 25 thousand heavy vehicles were running thru the state.
Result was high risk to citizens and terrible condition of highways.
Sri Jagannath Dham, puri one of the most popular hub of world
cultural heritage was not properly connected with other parts of
India with rail and road lines. 20 pairs of trains run to puri on a
daily basis, but surprisingly on a single line. Puri railway station
lacks sufficient platforms, passenger amenities and even a central
terminal facility. On the contrary Tirupati railway station is well
connected to Chennai, Gudur, Hyderabad, Bangalore. As like Tirupati,
Puttaparthy & Madurai, Puri neither has a helipad nor airport.
Thanks to Naveen Pattanaik government at least that due to his
repeated efforts POSCO is going to construct Puri - Konark -
Paradeep rail line for 100 kilometer.
Any way the days are brighter ahead as our state governance is
excellent. We are entering into a evolutionary revolution of
prosperity. Let us have a blind faith on that chaka akhi, he the
supreme lord will protect us from all darts of politics.
Jaya Jagannath.
Regards
Team Nilachakra
|