The Railway police have registered a case against nine persons for their involvement in Belpahar rail roko.
The Railway Department has lost revenue of more than Rs 16 crore for the protest launched by the Belpahar Citizen Forum (BCF) in Jharsuguda district, as several trains were stranded at various stations due to the rail roko,a railway official said.
Two months back, the Belpahar residents had given a notice to the railway authorities for their agitation over a 6-point charter of demands. Thereafter, the South Eastern Railway (SER) Bilaspur authorities had sent one womanofficer Rashmi Goutam on Thursday to sort out the problems raised by the forum.
BCF convener SS Satpathy said the rude behaviour shown by the officer during a tripartite discussion held under chairmanship of district Collector BibhutiBhusan Patnaik compelled the forum to intensity the agitation further as not a single demand of the citizen forum was accepted.
However, on Friday again the Railway Department was offered opportunity to take a call on their demand. As no convincing reply was received from the Railway Department, the forum launched the rail roko. However, the agitation was called off after 4 hour with intervention of district Collector BB Patnaik assuring to take up the matter with the railway authorities in a meeting scheduled on November 29 at Bilaspur.
Meanwhile, the situation aggravated furtherwhen without going for an amicable solution of the issues, Brajrajnagar Railway Police booked case against nine persons including BCF convener Satpathy, Prachand Jaiswal, JK Mohapatra, senior citizens GunanidhiPati, Belpahar Municipality Chairman Parsuram Sahoo, Goutam Pradhan, Pramod Senapati, NimaiCharan Panda and Samir Mishra. Railway Inspector of Police PC Sharma is inquiring into the case.
As stated by Senior Commercial Division Superintendent BikasKasyap, additional stoppage of trains in those stations will not be allowed having more than 90 per cent rail traffic.
As the traffic percentage for goods train transporting coal through Belpahar station is 147 per cent, stoppage for South Bihar Express at Belpahar station may not be feasible, rail sources said. Likewise, with less commuters on South Bihar Express and tickets sold in Belpahar station, stoppage of the train in Belpahar will not be feasible as per letter issued by railway authorities on November 12 to BCF.
