A. Majid
The Central Government, specifically the Ministry of Railways never bother to serve Orissa in even fair proportion to benefits they derived from this State.
The South Eastern Railways carry about 120 million MT of Iron Ore and Coal, a substantial portion from the mines of Bolani, Gorumahisani, Badam Pahar,Talcher etc. of Orissa. When the track from Lakhmannath Road to Bhadrakh of SE Rlys runs through Orissa, the SE Rlys extends up to Jharsuguda. These tracks takes the minerals.
To say the least, about 45% of the total tracks of SE Rlys pass through Orissa, but Orissa gets a step motherly treatment in the matter of welfare, passenger amenities, stations or expansion and improvement of tracks or introduction of new trains.
As if this was not enough after formation of new zones and new Railway Recruitment Boards in West Bengal and else where, the only Railways Recruitment Board (RRB) of Orissa located at Bhubaneswar has been debarred from supplying panels of candidates for recruitment of Asst. Station Masters, Goods Guard ,Asst Loco Pilot and all other categories of staff to SE Railway. Now this railway is bringing candidates from RRBs operating in Ranchi, Kolkata, Malda etc who are unwilling to work in Orissa area. On the other hand educated Oriya boys are deprived of this facility in the already shrinking government job market.
It is unfortunate that Orissa’s MPs and MLAs are not bothering about this foul play against the State. Vishakhapatnam Division of East Coast railway has a small portion of track in Andhra region; but because of alertness of Telegu MPs, 30% vacancies of Visakhapatnam division is filled up from panels obtained from RRB, Secunderabad to safeguard the interest of Telegus.
The Special Secretary for Railways in Orissa Government is doing nothing about it too.
Will the Orissa MPs and MLAs rise from their slumber and instead of spending their time and energy in petty quarrels amongst themselves, look into this and work to protect the rights of Oriya boys?
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