BJD Protests Poor Railway Budget Allocation To Odisha, Stages Rail Roko

Bhubaneswar: Protesting the alleged step-motherly attitude of the Railway Ministry for poor budget allocation for Odisha, the ruling Biju Janata Dal on Wednesday staged rail roko in the state.

In Berhampur, activists of the Ganjam district BJD staged a one-hour rail roko at the railway station from 7 am to 8 am. They alleged that as against the demand of the state government for allocation of Rs 6500 crore, the Railway Ministry has earmarked Rs 5252 crore in the Railway Budget for the current fiscal. They also came down heavily on the Ministry for shifting the proposed Railway Wagon Factory at Sitalapalli to Maharashtra.

“The Railway Ministry has ignored Ganjam district. Though the Centre had announced in the Parliament five years ago to set up a wagon factory at Sitalapalli, work for the proposed factory is yet to begin. Sadly, no budget allocation has been made for the proposed factory in the railway budget. Besides, the Railway Ministry has not made any budget allocations for the proposed Berhampur-Phulbani and Berhampur-Rayagada railway route. This apart the ministry has not made any budget provision for infrastructure development of Berhampur railway station,” BJD leader and former minister Pradip Panigrahi said.

In Sambalpur, the district BJD unit staged rail roko at Khetrajpur railway station protesting the gross apathy of the Railway Ministry towards western Odisha. The agitators detained the Bengaluru-Hatia Express train for about half-an-hour.

The train left the station later.