BHUBANESWAR: Kalahandi MP and former Union minister Bhakta Charan Das has
given a call for agitation from May 1 demanding establishment of a wagon factory
at Narla in Kalahandi district as announced in the 2010 Railway Budget. He gave
the call following reported disinterest shown by the State Government towards
the project.
�As per the agitation plan, all the people of
Kalahandi have been requested to sport black badges from May 1 to 6 protesting
the ‘step-motherly’ attitude of the State Government towards the district.
� Processions will be taken out in all the panchayat
headquarters in the district on May 7 and memorandum, addressed to Chief
Minister Naveen Patnaik, submitted.
�Das has called upon the people of Kalahandi to
cooperate with him for a district bandh and non-cooperation movement for
establishment of the wagon factory in the district.
�The then Railway minister Mamata Banerjee had
announced in the 2010 Budget that wagon factories will be set up in Bhubaneswar
and� in Kalahandi district. In the next Budget, the Ministry of Railways had
requested the State Government to identify land in the district for the wagon
factory.� However, the Chief Minister wrote two letters to the Railway Minister
requesting to set up the wagon factory at Chatrapur in Ganjam district instead
of Narla, Das said. He alleged that the request was politically-motivated.
� The former Union minister alleged that though land
was available at Narla for the factory, neither the State Government nor the
Chief Minister ever mentioned in their letters to the Centre about it.
�In his letter to general manager of East Coast
Railway (ECoR), the Kalahandi Collector had informed on September 12, 2011, that
90-acre Government land was available for the factory at Chapatkhanda, only 6 km
from Narla. The collector had also informed that 44.7-acre Government land and
32.79-acre private land of a farmer were also available in Regidimal and Bhatang
villages, hardly 1.5 km from Narla, for the factory.� Ignoring these facts, the
State Government never informed the Centre that land was available in Kalahandi
district. Instead, the then Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi announced that the
factory will be established at Sitapalli in Ganjam district.
�Describing this as a conspiracy against the people of
Kalahandi, Das alleged that the Chief Minister was fully responsible for
shifting of the factory. Why did not the Chief Minister demand two wagon
factories in the State and instead he wrote for only one when the Railway
Ministry was prepared for two? Das asked.
�Questioning the decision to divert the wagon factory
to Ganjam district, Das threatened that people of the district would not
tolerate such neglect for long. He warned that the fight against the State
Government’s apathy would continue till the demand for the wagon factory in the
district is supported by the Chief Minister.
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