Citizen’s voice

Trains needed
While flagging off the Pune-Ernakulam Poorna Express more than a decade ago,O Rajagopal,the then Minister of State for Railways,had made a public announcement that the train would be extended up to Thiruvanathapuram and also that its frequency would be increased to at least thrice a week,if not daily,in due course,depending upon the passenger load. But,Rajagopal could not fulfil the said promise as the NDA government did not come back to power at the Centre.

Over the recent years,the passenger load on Poorna Express had increased manifold and its weekly run from Pune on Saturdays and from Ernakulam on Mondays had become awfully inadequate for meeting the travelling demands of the public. Hence,various organisations such as Mahratta Chamber of Commerce,Industry & Agriculture,Pune Malayalee Federation (PMF),United Kerala Federation (UKF),Pune Kerala Muslim Jama-et (PKMJ) and Poona Keraleeya Samaj (PKS),had been making constant requests to the Railway Ministry for increasing the frequency of Poorna Express and to extend it upto Thiruvananthapuram but their pleadings have so far fallen on deaf ears.

In this context,it must be mentioned here that every national,state and local political leader of every hue and cry worth his/her salt,had been repeating their promises at every election time to do the needful to fulfill the pending demands of the travelling public,particularly the Keralite residents of Pune,but,those leaders had been conveniently forgetting all about those promises. It must also be mentioned here that there are at present six union ministers from Kerala,including E Ahmed,who is the Minister of State for Railways and besides them,there are another ten members of Parliament from that State on the treasury benches. The leaders of the named organizations had approached some of the said union ministers from Kerala for seeking their help for getting the frequency and destination of Poorna Express extended.

MN Vijayan
Hadapsar