Rlys to demarcate jurisdiction of new divisions

Statesman News Service

MALDA, March 2: Indian railway authorities will formulate policies to demarcate the "administrative" territory of a railway division within the area of a state, Mr S Acharya, assistant commercial manager of Malda Railway Division said yesterday.Speaking to members of the Malda Railway Division Banchao Committee (MRDBC) at Rathbari Railway crossing, Mr Acharya stated that the railway authorities will demarcate the areas of operation for a railway division within the state in the future.The MRDBC members, comprising all party leaders and members of Malda Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce (MMCC), blocked railways for over seven hours yesterday. The agitation took place with the aim of protecting the interests of the Malda Railway Division (MRD) after the formation of a new Railway Division at Bhagalpur, Bihar, cutting the MRD's territory in Bihar. MRDBC and MMCC members were adamant that they would continue their Rail Roko agitation. They are demanding more areas for MRD from the northern part of Malda district, north and south Dinajpur, Birbhum and even the Pakur in Jharkhand under the Howrah Railway Division (HRD). The assistant commercial manager Mr S Acharya and the assistant operating manager Mr RK Sinha told them that it would be very difficult to include the area up to Pakur in the MRD territory due to technical problems discovered during a feasibility study. “If the railway authorities take such a decision we predict that we will face another agitation from those areas,” Mr Acharya said. Pakur has the highest revenue-earning potential because of its rake points. The trade of stone chips from Pakur contributes a large amount of revenue to the HRD. According to officials of the Malda Railway Division (MRD), the railway authorities plan to run more trains along the Ajimganj-Katwa route to earn revenue for the division. This will make up the shortfall of revenue used to collect from those areas which have been included to form the Bhagalpur Railway Division (BRD) . A new area up to Katwa has been included under the MRD after the formation of the BRD. It was finally decided that the Malda DRM (Railway Divisional Manager) Mr Anup Sahu would meet the MRDBC members at his office after 5 March. Here, the MRDBC will table a memorandum demanding the inclusion of Pakur and ask the DRM to send a proposal to its authorities for consideration. (END)