Letter to PM: Seeking Union Railway Cabinet Minister from Orissa

Orissadiary.com, May 19, 2009

To
The Prime Minister of India, Dr. Singh

CC
Ms. Sonia Gandhi, UPA Chairperson and President of Indian National Congress Party
Media

Dear honorable Prime Minister, Dr. Singh, I congratulate you for winning the General Election 2009 and hope that you will continue to give good governance to our nation.

Sir, one thing that keeps me hurting that the railway density of Orissa is lower than national average when Orissa is one of the most profit making railway zones in the country.

Former railway ministers such as Mr. Lalu Yadav, Mr. Nitish Kumar, Ms. Mamata Banerjee etc continuously ignored railway demand and requirement of Orissa and were indulged in political influence to divert funds to their respective states.

Despite the fact that Bihar comes under one of most loss making railway zones, Bihar and West Bengal are the most gainer by India railway where as profit making Orissa is a loser, specially, Kalahandi Balangir Koraput (KBK) region, a multi-facet backward region, is worst sufferer by railway ministry. It is clearly evident from struggling ongoing projects since decades in KBK region such as Lanjigarh road – Junagarh and Balangir – Khordha road lines.

It has been proven many times that political influence by union railway minister is Key in bringing development in backward region.

Due to political influence by railway minister Mr. Lalu Yadav, in last couple of years Indian Railway has committed 55,000 crore investment only in Bihar for various ongoing and new projects where as Orissa, especially KBK, is being continuously neglected since decades by Indian railway.

Indian Railway has proposed to establish new factory in UP, Bihar and Kerala during last five years where has nothing has been made in Orissa. Demand of a railway factory in Kalahandi is being ignored. A railway factory in Bhawanipatna will enormously benefit Kalahandi, Rayagada, Kandhamal, Boudh, Nuapada, Balangir, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Gajpati, Sonepur and Malkangiri equally as it is centrally located to all these backward districts.

In this election Indian National Congress party performed better and increased its number of MPs to 6 in Orissa. A dalit, educated and talented leader like Mr. Bhakta Charan Das won with a huge margin among all congress elected candidates in Orissa, and also played a very important role in winning 4 congress MLAs from his Lok Sabha constituency when other parts of Orissa were totally opting for regional BJD MLAs in the last assembly poll.

About two decades ago, Mr. Das successfully handled Ministry of Railway as a Union State Minister with independent charge and was pioneer to bring railway connection in the backward KBK region, the project which has not yet accomplished completely.

We argue you to specially consider the case to assign Union Cabinet Minister of Railway from Orissa so that ongoing railway projects in Orissa get more importance and Orissa gets its past due for a railway factory in Kalahandi.

Thanking you

With best regards

Digambara Patra