Title - Eight MPs to stage dharna in Hubli tomorrow

‘It’s against apathy of Railways towards Karnataka’
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Eight members of the Lok Sabha will stage a dharna in front of the office of the General Manager of the South Western Railway in Hubli on July 31 in protest against what they described as step-motherly treatment being meted out to Karnataka in carrying out various schemes and also running trains.G.M. Siddeshwar, Davangere MP, said in a statement here on Sunday that the had taken the decision at a meeting held in New Delhi a week ago. They expressed their ire against the alleged apathy of the Railway Ministry towards Karnataka and decided to draw the attention of the Union government to their demands through the protest.Mr. Siddeshwar said the Karnataka Sampark Kranti (train number 12649 and 12650) was entering Andhra Pradesh after covering a meagre 60 km from its starting point at Bangalore. Both these trains were not stopping at any railway station in Karnataka, he said. He questioned the rationale behind naming the trains as Karnataka Sampark Kranti without serving the needs of the people. The people of Bangalore, Tumkur, Davangere, Hubli and Belgaum had been demanding daily train services ato Delhi. Therefore, the route of the train could be altered to pass through Tumkur, Davangere, Hubli and Belgaum. The Railways should take immediate steps to operate the trains on new routes like Harihar-Kottur and serve the needs of lakhs of regular commuters, including farmers, merchants and tourists.

After a concerted effort by many MPs, the Union government had carried out a survey of land for constructing a railway line through Tumkur, Chitradurga and Davangere, which would also facilitate introduction of direct train services from Bangalore to Davangere. The Union government had also conducted a survey for a new railway line between Shimoga and Harihar. He alleged that the Centre was not keen on approving the final survey report and commence the work on laying the new railway lines. Mr. Siddeshwar criticised the Union government for not introducing inter-city train services between Harihar and Bangalore despite submitting many memorandums. Earlier, the then Railway Minister had announced during Budget presentation for 2009-10 that all unmanned railway crossings would be converted into manned ones by March this year. Although there were 13 unmanned railway crossings in Davangere Lok Sabha constituency alone, no steps had been initiated so far to convert them into manned ones. G.S. Basavaraj, Tumkur MP; Shivakumar Udasi, Haveri MP; Prahalad Joshi, Dharwad MP; P.C. Gadigowdar, Bagalkote MP; Suresh Angadi, Belgaum MP and others have decided to stage the protest.