ROURKELA: BJP leaders of Sundargarh have been left red-faced over the demand for a new railway division at Rourkela with their party colleagues of Bargarh Parliamentary constituency unwittingly demanding the same at Jharsuguda.
During his recent visit to Jharsuguda, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was flooded with separate demands for a new division from BJP leaders at Rourkela and Jharsuguda. BJP insiders admitted that the internal fight in the party is weakening the prospects of Rourkela. As a fallout, the Railway Ministry may not give importance to both the places.
Sources said former Union Minister and BJP MP from Sundargarh Jual Oram has been unsuccessfully pursuing the demand for long. His Bargarh counterpart Suresh Pujari also wants a new rail division at Jharsuguda. While Pujari was not available for comment, Jharsuguda district BJP president Mangal Sahu said the Bargarh MP had submitted a memorandum to the Railway Minister in this regard. Besides, party MLA from Sundargarh Kusum Tete handed over a letter requesting the Minister to set up a new railway division at either Jharsuguda or Rourkela.
State BJP secretary Tankadhar Tripathy said he also requested the Union Minister to consider Jharsuguda as a new division. The Minister agreed for setting up a centre at Jharsuguda to control tracks of Jharsuguda, Bilaspur and Sambalpur divisions of two different railway zones, he said. This could be seen as a step towards creation of a division at Jharsuguda.
Denying any internal division in the BJP, Tripathy claimed that party leaders of different areas raised the demand to meet aspirations of their respective electorates.Refusing to comment on the stand of Pujari, Tripathy and Tete on the rail division demand, Birmitrapur’s BJP MLA Shankar Oram said he met Vaishnaw and apprised him about the feasibility of Rourkela and the bulk revenue contribution of Sundargarh district to South Eastern Railway (SER).
Sambalpur division of East Coast Railway (ECoR) is only 60 km away from Jharsuguda compared to 180 km from Rourkela. With the available key installations and infrastructure, a new railway division could be created without financial burden and the time-consuming process and its headquarters set up at Rourkela, he added.
A couple of years back, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had proposed to carve out three bulk revenue generating districts from SER’s Chakradharpur division and create a new division at Rourkela under ECoR for unification of railways in Odisha.