Keralites protest

PUNE, Feb 19: About 5,000 members of the Pune Malayalee Federation staged a demonstration at the Pune Railway Station this morning and su...

PUNE, Feb 19: About 5,000 members of the Pune Malayalee Federation staged a demonstration at the Pune Railway Station this morning and submitted a memorandum to Divisional Railway Manager A K Verma demanding a train from Pune to Kerala through Konkan Railway.

The memorandrun, which is to be sent to Railway Minister Nitish Kumar, states that there are 4.5 lakh Keralities living in Pune who have been inconvenienced by the Konkan Railway project that came through in January 1998.

8220;Out of 23 Kerala-bound trains passing through Pune, 15 have been diverted through Konkan Railway bypassing Pune completely. At the same time, compartments reserved for Mangalore in the Jayanthi Janata Express have also been removed,8221; said C Shamsuddin, president of the Pune Malayalee Federation.

Konkan Railway has also affected bus service between Mumbai and Kerala. Buses that used to ply via Pune, have been taken off the roads for lack of commuters. 8220;Via Konkan, the train journey takes only about 13 hours which is lesser than time taken by bus, so passengers natuarlly prefer the former,8221; adds Shamsuddin. With no air link between the two cities, trains are the only means of transport.

Keralities also rue the fact that as of now there is no train for the Malabar region of Kerala, through Pune. For residents of the locality, it means changing trains as many as four or five times to reach their destination.

The procession of 5,000 including about 1,000 women, started from B J Medical College and wound its way to the railway station shouting slogans demanding justice.

If there is no response from the Government in a month, the federation has threatened to resort to more drastic measures and initiate a rail roko andolan letting no trains ply between Dehu Road and Hadapsar. 8220;We are peaceful and law abiding citizens and our intention is not to damage public property. But if there is no action on the memorandum, we will be forced to resort to more forceful ways of protest,8221; said J Sadasivan, secretary, PMF.