By IANS
New Delhi : Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Monday bowed to angry protests by Kerala MPs against bifurcation of the state’s Palakkad railway division to create a new one for neighbouring Tamil Nadu by announcing that such a move would take place only after discussions with the state.
Responding to a calling attention motion moved by Kerala MPs, the railway minister said he would ask Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to call a meeting between Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and his Tamil Nadu counterpart M. Karunanidhi to find an amicable solution.
“This is not a very serious issue and we can sort it out,” Lalu Prasad told agitated Kerala MPs, adding that no date has been fixed for the inauguration of the Salem division that is proposed to be created by bifurcating the Palakkad division.
The railway minister’s statement comes a few days after his junior minister R. Velu announced that the new Salem division, which Kerala is protesting, would be inaugurated Sep 14. Karunanidhi has also announced that the inauguration would take place as scheduled despite protests by Kerala.
The Kerala MPs, who had stalled parliament proceedings last week over the issue, said it was a victory for their fight to get the state its due.
Eesponding to the calling attention motion, Lalu Prasad admitted that “major portion of the jurisdiction of the proposed Salem division has been taken from Palakkad and the residual jurisdiction of Palakkad division has become less than that of Salem division”.
Stressing their apprehensions, Palakkad Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) MP N.N. Krishnadas, who moved the motion, said: “The situation can be compared to one where a mother gives birth to a child who is bigger than her. The result will be the death of the mother”.
The MPs from Kerala, who have been meeting Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the issue, have been maintaining that they don’t have anything against the creation of a Salem division but don’t want Palakkad to be downgraded.
However, the railway minister ruled out Kerala’s demand for a new West Coast railway zone. Krishnadas’s CPI-M colleagues C.S. Sujatha (Mavelikkara MP), Suresh Kurup (Kottayam) and S. Ajaya Kumar (Ottapalam) also spoke on the issue.
Kerala MPs have asked the railway ministry to create the Salem division “rationally” by taking parts of Tiruchirappalli, Chennai and Palakkad instead of merely cutting down the last division.
The discussion created some unpleasant scenes with MPs from Tamil Nadu protesting Lalu Prasad’s decision to seek the prime minister’s intervention.