Title - Traders, passengers mull rail roko agitation

Fazilka : After exhausting all the peaceful measurers against the Railways for getting the running of trains on already completed Fazilka-Abohar rail track started, the Northern Railway Passengers Samiti and the Beopar Mandal, Fazilka, have decided to launch a rail roko agitation against the Railways.There is a great resentment amongst the residents of the area as the track lies useless despite the fact that a hefty sum of `216 crore has already been spent on the project. Hence, the NGOs have decided to fight against the problem till it reaches its logical conclusion. The project was completed in March 2011.In a memorandum sent to the Railway Minister Mukul Rai, the Chairman Railway Board, and the Divisional Rail Manager, Ferozepur Division, president of the Beopar Mandal Fazilka Ashok Gulbadhar and Dr Amar Lal Baghla, president of the Northern India Railway Passengers Samiti, have warned that if the trains were not run on the track by June 14, the area people would be compelled to resort to agitation.“During the agitation, the members of NGOs would initiate an indefinite dharna before the railway station and would stop all trains to Fazilka,” said Gulbadhar and Baghla.They have pleaded that after making the track operational, the border area from Jammu (J&K ) to Jaisalmer would be directly connected through the rail network, which shall ultimately benefit the defence forces also.Besides, the Railway Minister had in preceding two budgets of 2011-12 and 2012-13 declared to introduce an express train from Ferozepur to Sriganganagar (Rajasthan) and Bathinda to Fazilka via Abohar.Surprisingly, these trains are shown running on this “completed” rail track in the Railway time table. But due to indifferent and callous attitude of the Railway authorities, the basic infrastructure was yet to be completed for practical purposes, rued the leaders, adding that the department has to bear huge revenue losses every year for non-commencement of the track.