BJD breaks silence on Kalahandi wagon mill

Shared by Sri Santosh Kumar Kar
The Pioneer, May 8, 2012

BJD leaders of Kalahandi district on Monday broke their silence over the issue of setting up of a rail wagon factory in the district, after local Congress MP Bhakta Charan Das’ call to people to put on black badges for six days to protest the State Government’s apathy towards establishment of the factory at Narla in the district.

While Das has been accusing Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik of his apathy towards identifying of land at Narla for the factory, the BJD leaders have now begun blaming Das for allegedly misguiding the people on the issue by holding public meetings in all blocks of the district. They said Das has no other issue to take up after the Congress was defeated in the recent panchayat elections in the district by the BJD.

Das has been demanding a railway wagon factory at Narla in the wake of the commitment by Railway Minister Mukul Roy in Parliament that wagon factories can be established both at Sitalapalli in Ganjam district and Narla in Kalahandi.

District BJD president Balabhadra Majhi and Minister of Labour & Employment Pushpendra Singh Deo at a Press conference here on Monday said that the CM never thought of discrimination against Kalahandi.

They said the CM had demanded that provision be made in the Railway Budget 2012-13 for establishment of a wagon factory on the identified patch of Government land at Sitalapalli under Brahmapur tehsil of Ganjam, which is located adjacent to Kolkata-Chennai NH-5.

And at the same time, the BJD leaders said, the Ministry of Railways was requested by the State Government to consider establishment of another wagon factory on the available Government land at Narla in Kalahandi. On April 11, 2012, the State Government wrote a letter to the general manager of the East Coast Railway to examine the matter for setting up of a factory at Narla. Kalahandi Collector Dukhishyam Satpathy also submitted a letter of availability of Government land for the factory at Narla, the BJD leaders said.

Balabhadra Majhi and Singh Deo refuted Das’ allegation that the CM had personally written a letter to the Railway Minister that instead of Kalahandi, the proposed wagon factory should be set up at Sitalapalli. Let Das show a copy of such a letter written by the CM, they said.

Majhi said that when an all-party meeting was called by Das at Bhawanipatna to discuss the issue, BJD leaders were not invited to it. The BJD is fully cooperating in the efforts for setting up of a factory at Narla and it is for Bhakta Das to clinch the issue in New Delhi as his party is ruling at the Centre, they observed.

Sources said the district BJD leaders had met the CM on the issue and the latter had directed them to hold a Press conference immediately at Bhawanipatna to counter Das’ offensive.