Letter to CM: Railway board ignored KBK region

Orissadairy.com, 26th July, 2008

Dear honorable Chief Minister Mr Patnaik,
The step taken by Orissa Government and railway board to make a committee for first track implementation of certain railway project in Orissa is appreciable.
However, the railway board is repeatedly ignoring some of the important social lines in the state such as:

(i) Khordha road – Balangir line (no concrete step has been proposed)

(ii) Talcher – Bimalagarh line (no discussion was made in this regard)

(iii) Extension of Lanjigarh road – Junagarh line to Nabarangpur – Jeypore – Malkangiri (no discussion was made in this regard)
Unfortunately, no promised was made towards development of railway project in KBK Kandhamal and Southern Orissa by the railway board.
Both the state Government and railway have been ignoring backward region like KBK since decades. Social scientist have been raising the issues of poor infrastructure in KBK region since years and its time that infrastructure should get first priority in this region by declaring all railway project in KBK region as National Project.
http://www.petitiononline.com/kbkrail/
http://railways-forgets.blogspot.com/
On the other side, Orissa is one of the most profit making zones of railway in the country and its get only 20 – 30 % of its annual profit as investment in the state.
At least 50 % of its profit coming out from Orissa should be invested towards development of railway line in the backward pocket of the state.
For national irrigation projects KBK region is considered same as other hilly region like North Eastern states, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh etc. But in case of railway development in this region central Government has not given equal emphasis to KBK region.
I hope you will bring the attention of railway board and central Government to declare all railway projects in KBK region as national project in the line for North Eastern states.
Thank you and with best regards
Digambara Patra
Dr Digambara Patra
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
American University of Beirut
Bliss Street-P.O. Box: 11-0236
Beirut, Lebanon
Email: digpatra@rediffmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/digpatra/index.html