Union Govt exposed for false promises;Denial of Railway Division to Jammu shall be fought tooth and nail: Harsh

 STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Lambasting the Union and State BJP leadership for its false promises over sanction of a full-fledged Railway Division for Jammu, Harsh Dev Singh, JKNPP Chairman and former Minister, today said that the lies of saffron leadership stood exposed by the Divisional Railway Manager Ferozpur Division who made a statement in Phagwara yesterday ruling out any separate Railway Division for Jammu. Tracing the history of a separate Railway Division for Jammu, Singh said that the announcement was first made by UPA Government in 2010 for creation of separate Railway Divisions in Assam and Karnataka alongwith Jammu. He said that while Assam and Karnataka had been provided with the said Divisions Jammu alone continued to be ignored. He said that the early creation of the Jammu Railway Division was further assured by the Union Railway Minister during launch of Katra- Kanyakumari train service through video conferencing in Sept. 2014. He however regretted that the delay and deny approach ultimately culminated in the statement of the Northern Railway functionary clearing the air yesterday that there was no such proposed at all. Highlighting the urgency for a separate Railway Division for Jammu, Harsh said that there was enormous expansion of train services under the Northern Railway but the Railway Divisions were not increased. He said that the Railway Division Jammu was expected to cater to Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, besides other stations of Pathankot, Amritsar, Gurdaspur etc. He claimed that the said Railway Division would not only have streamlined Railway Traffic including monitoring of DMUs, routes of such trains but would also have boosted the economy of the region and created large scale employment for the local youth. He said that Jammu would have received Division level funds which would have further helped building of requisite infrastructure and modernization of the age old Railway Station Jammu. He said that it would also help the business community which had been adversely affected due to trains directly carrying the tourists and pilgrims to Katra. He said that the records of employees would also have been maintained in Jammu thus facilitating the railways employees of J&K to settle their transfer, promotion and post retirement cases in Jammu itself.
He further questioned the fate of tall announcements of the govt. for 223 km long Jammu-Akhnoor-Sunderbani-Rajouri-Poonch Railway line, 200 km long Kathua-Basholi-Bani-Bhaderwah-Kishtwar Railway line besides Srinagar-Kargil-Leh line as nothing was discernible on ground.
Seeking early initiation of action for creation of much needed Railway Division at Jammu besides development of World Class Railway Station with new platforms, Singh cautioned the Union and State BJP Leaders of massive public protests in case of any further dilly over the subject.