Suresh Prabhu's AP rail zone promises catch up with him

Union Railway minister Suresh Prabhu is likely to be caught up in the cross-fire between the people of Andhra Pradesh and the BJP-led NDA government at the centre soon.

 

The friction between the two sides is getting worse with people raising all the unimplemented assurances incorporated in the AP Reorganization Act, 2014 that led to the creation of Telangana.

 

Already Rayalaseeema is agitating for a steel plant (promised in the Act). All political parties, including late-comer Jana Sena of Pawan Kalyan, are questioning the denial of special category status to Andhra Pradesh, which was promised by Narendra Modi.

 

Now, the people of North Coastal Andhra (Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts) have decided to drive Suresh Prabhu into the conflict zone of unfulfilled provisions of the Act.

 

The first salvo was fired at Suresh Prabhu on September 3, against his silence on the promised Visakhapatnam Railway Zone, exactly three months after his election to the Upper House.  

 

Activist-turned-former MP and state minister Konathala Ramakrishna dashed off a letter cautioning the railway minister of the consequences if he too gives the short shrift to the creation of a new railway zone.

 

Though bandhs , dharnas and indefinite fasts were organized in the past, all these activities have been put on hold following the election of the railway minister to the Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh, with the hope that he would help it become a reality.

 

Suresh Prabhu was elected from Andhra Pradesh unopposed on July 3. Everybody then thought that TDP preferred Prabhu to Venkaiah Naidu and Nirmala Seetharaman, who also hold important portfolios, because of the railways department.

 

Ironically, in the past three months, Suresh Prabhu talked of many new projects for Andhra Pradesh except the most important and constitutionally backed assurance of Visakhapatnam Railway Zone.

 

The demand has been there for years. Inclusion of Visakhapatnam division in Bhubaneswar based East Coast has always been source of resentment at the time of job recruitment. The North Andhra people complain discrimination by the Odisha based authorities. So, they have been demanding separate zone for Visakhapatanam, which is fourth biggest revenue earner in the state.

 

But, the promise of creating a new Visakha Zone was made to placate the angry Andhra people who were opposed to the bifurcation Andhra Pradesh to carve out Telangana.

 

 In a paragraph that deals with ‘Infrastructure’, it was clearly promised that the creation of a railway zone would be examined.

 

“Indian Railways shall, within six months from the appointed day, examine establishing a new railway zone in the successor state of Andhra Pradesh and take an expeditious decision thereon”.

 

“Sir, it’s over two years and three months since the BJP-led NDA has come to power. For whatever reason the issue remains only on paper and there is no word when it would translate into reality,” Ramakrishna said in the letter.

 

With the South Central Railway Zone, going to Telangana after the bifurcation, Andhra Pradesh had not only become a state without a capital city, but also an important state without a railway zone in the country, he added.

 

“There could no better eco-system for a new Railway Zone than Visakhapatnam in the entire country. Vizag has two ports Visakhapatnam and Gangavaram Port. It is the headquarters of the Eastern Naval Command, which is one of the three major formations of the Indian Navy.

 

“In addition to this there are several premier public sector units like the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, BDL, Hindustan Zinc, Food Corporation of India, Gas Authority of India, our greatest pride Visakhpatnam Steel Plant and the Steel Authority of India.

 

“Also there are prestigious educational institutions like Andhra University, GITAM, around 30 engineering colleges, hospitals, etc. Vizag stands at the beginning of the Vizag-Chennai industrial corridor,” he said of the qualification of Vizag to become a separate zone,” he said

 

He cautioned Suresh Prabhu that the promise of the railway zone, listed in ‘black and white’ in the Act, shouldn’t become a travesty of democracy and justice when he was presiding the railways.