Nava Kerala March entered Thrissur district on Friday completing its tour of Palakkad district. After the media meet at Ramanilayam, march moved over to Kunnamkulam in the morning. Unbelievable crowd was present there at Kunnamkulam and Guruvayoor even though it was before noon. As the march proceeds, attracting more and more people is really a matter to be proud of. This shows that the people come forward to defend with double the vigour the enemies are attacking us. This is a quality available to our party alone. People have come forward forgetting everything to protect the party at all times when it was severely attacked.
One of the issues we repeatedly tell during the course of the march is regarding the neglect the central government is meting out to the State of Kerala. This issue was touched upon in one of the article written few days back. During the last railway budget the central government was supported by left parties. The main demands put forward by Kerala was accepted due to the strong intervention of the left, though deserving consideration was not forthcoming. Autocast Ltd of Cherthala, Coach Factory at Palakkad etc were all part of this. This time, due and justified consideration is not shown to Kerala in railway budget. Funds have not been made available for construction of over bridges, electrification, doubling of railway lines, survey for new routes included in the last budget. What has been made available are also not fully expended. A budget of Rs. 37,500 Crores have been prepared by railway for the year ending this March. Share available to Kerala was only Rs.240 Crores. Had one percent been made available, Kerala would have got Rs. 375 Crores. The most important project for development of railway in Kerala is the doubling of Shoranur-Mangalapuram line. This work commenced 12 years ago has not yet been completed. 27 kilometers remain to be doubled yet.
When we demand more trains, the reply from railway is that the the rail cannot carry any more train. Railway is not serious about the infrastructure development projects like doubling of lines. Kayamkulam-Ernakulam rail has to be doubled both via Kottayam and Alleppey. This work, if the tardy progress is allowed to continue, will not be completed even with the next 10 years. According to railway's own calculation a minimum of Rs. 2200 Crores are required for the doubling of the required lines in Kerala. What was sanctioned last year was only Rs. 126 Crores. The expectation that the central government will be prepared to considerably increase the funds for doubling of lines atleast in this budget also is belied.
New trains, Kochuveli-Dehradun and Kochuveli-Yeswanthpur, were declared in the budget. Both were not commenced even on the day of this budget. This attitude is one which questions the very concept of budget. But for the declaration that one weekly train will be made bi-weekly, no new train has been proposed, this time. The decision to set up integral coach factory at Kanjikode in Palakkad district is the result of concerted efforts put in by Kerala. Railway minister has not even cared to mention this project in his budget speech, leave alone considering the demand from Kerala that concret steps are required to make the coach factory a reality. The railway minister pretends that he has not heard the consistent demand of Kerala for a railway zone. The major portion of the budget allocation set apart for Southern Railway is being diverted to other parts. The main demand of Kerala is to have a South-West railway zone consisting of Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram, Salem and the proposed Konkan zones.
If suburban train service like that of Mumbai and Chennai is introduced it will mitigate the sufferings of short distance passengers of thickly populated Kerala. The Delhi Metro Rail Project Chairman Sri. E Sreedharan has already estimated that three suburban rail service can be introduced at a cost of Rs.500 Crores. Kerala's cry for rightful share of railway development is decades old. 14.86 Croes of passengers are travelling with ticket. Those who couldnot travel due to the non availability of ticket is not accounted by railway. The fact that number of trains are not increased even when the passengers are doubled is pitiable. The complaint that the coaches supplied to Kerala trains are old and dilapidated is widespread. The central government has to take urgent short term measures to solve the problems of the passengers along with the large projects. All these are not issues of any concern for the Congres which is in power at the centre. Strong intervention of the left was required to get even some very rightful demands conceded. Now the support of the left is not there for the Central Government. Because of this reason central government is not caring to address the problems faced by Kerala. The development of Kerala is not a concern of Congress !
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