March 22, 2012
Esteem Chief Minister and Chief Secretary of Odisha,
On March 23, 2012 railway minister Mr Roy again announced in the parliament to establish a Wagon Factory in Kalahandi if land is provided.
It is unreasonable why the state Govt. of Odisha is totally silent while sending land detail proposal in Kalahandi for Wagon Factory even one year has already passed after the similar announcement was made by Ms. Banerjee in March 2011 in the parliament where she had positively proclaimed that if land will be available railway will establish another Wagon Factory in Kalahandi beside the one already proposed in Odisha.
Many state media have reported availability of hundreds of acres of land in the vicinity of railway track in Kalahandi district. This was also corroborated by local administration.
Written information obtained through RTI act from Railway Board also confirmed us that railway had an interest to establish a Wagon Factory in Kalahandi. The information also clarifies that after the railway budget speech in Feb 2010 without getting any further correspondence from railway board the Chief Minister of Odisha on his own wrote to then railway minister on 18 March 2010 to set up the proposed factory in Ganjam district citing its close to urban area and NH5, when the railway minister had clearly announced to establish a Wagon Factory in either Bhubaneswar or Kalahandi in Feb 2010.
It would have been impartial if the state Govt. would have sent the proposal of land details in both Bhubaneswar and Kalahandi and let the railway minister to take the final decision based on technical feasibility study. Instead of doing that the state Govt. did not wait for any correspondence from railway ministry, not even one month past, the Chief Minister wrote to then railway minister to establish the Wagon Factory in Ganjam without even mentioning anything about Bhubaneswar or Kalahandi in his first letter on March 18, 2010.
The RTI information supplied by railway board also contradicts state Govt.’s claim that such a decision for relocating the proposed site in Ganjam was made by East Coast Railway. The railway minister also reconfirmed this in budget 2012-13 mentioning that “in view of the request received from state Govt. of Odisha, Wagon Factory is being located in Sitapali (Ganjam district)”
Coincidentally Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik himself had written separate letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Jan 17, 2009 urging them to take steps for establishing a rail coach factory in backward region of the state (Report published in The Pioneer, Bhubaneswar Edition, Jan 18, 2009 and The Hindu Business Lines Jan 17, 2009). However, the same chief minister has turned a blind eye in 2010 for possibility of establishing such a factory in backward district of Kalahandi is unthinkable.
It is not understood why the state Govt. is acting differently for Ganjam against the interest of the people of Kalahandi for the same issue if the reason was not political!
If there is no ill motivation by the state Govt. for the people of Kalahandi and backward region of the state, I urge the state Govt. without waiting for any correspondence from the railway ministry/board, , like was done for Ganjam, to immediately send a new proposal including land details in Kalahandi to railway minister for establishing another Wagon Factory in the state towards the benefit of the whole state.
Thank you and best regards
Digambara Patra
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