The Hindu : Toranagal-Guntakal line hangs fire

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 14, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Toranagal-Guntakal line hangs fire

By Our Special Correspondent

HUBLI Feb. 13. The visit of the Prime Minister, A.B.Vajpayee, to Hubli on Friday to inaugurate the new South-Western Railway Zone and lay the foundation stone for the zonal office should come as a feather in the cap of the BJP in the State.

For, getting a new railway zone with Hubli as headquarters had virtually become a single-point campaign, which the party spearheaded relentlessly, unmindful of the rebuffs it received.

But the issue of restoring Toranagal, in Bellary, wrongly given to Guntakal Division, to the Hubli Division and the South-Western Railway remains unresolved. It has been agreed that a modified notification should be issued to concede the demand of Karnataka. But there has been a delay in the notification of the modified order.

The expectation is that the formalities will be over by the time Mr. Vajpayee inaugurates the new zone. If there is any last-minute change in the decision of the Centre, the BJP may pay dearly for it. For, the zone will be considered truncated, and no one in Karnataka will appreciate a truncated zone being inaugurated.

The BJP's attitude towards the issue, which has acquired emotional overtones in North Karnataka, is in contrast to the apathy of the other two major parties in the State.

The Congress has been lukewarm to the demands pertaining to the railway zone. Although the Railway Reforms Committee recommended the creation of four new zones, including the South-Western Zone, in 1984, the Congress failed to act on it.

Hubli staked its claim for zonal headquarters when it appeared on the broadgauge map of India, thanks to the unigauge programme taken up when C.K.Jaffer Sharief was the Railway Minister in 1992-93. Despite the MPs giving in writing that they supported the demand, nothing serious was done during the regime of Mr. Sharief and Suresh Kalmadi who succeeded him as the Minister of State for Railways in the P.V.Narasimha Rao Cabinet.

The Congress continued to be lukewarm after its return to power in Karnataka three years ago. For, neither the notification by the Railways in July last year on the formation of new zones nor the transfer of Toranagal-Guntakal line to Guntakal stirred the party into action. Barring a formal note, the State Government did nothing to help the cause.

The Janata Dal developed a "split personality" syndrome on the issue. The man who caused the syndrome was the former prime minister, H.D.Deve Gowda who, while supporting the demand as Chief Minister, went back on it after becoming the Prime Minister in 1966.

It was during Mr. Gowda's regime that the Centre announced the formation of six new zones, including the South-Western Zone. But what came as a shock was the volte-face by Mr. Gowda on the question of making Hubli the zonal headquarters.

Riding roughshod over the feelings of the people of North Karnataka, Mr. Gowda went ahead to inaugurate the "zonal office" in Bangalore in November 1996.

To this day, he has not thought it fit to explain to the people the reason for the change in his stand. That the party paid the price for it subsequently reflected the feelings of the people in the region.

When the Vajpayee Government decided in 1999 to undo the wrong done to Karnataka, one of the associates of Mr. Gowda moved the court to get a stay and prevent the shifting of the zonal headquarters to Hubli in May 1999. While Mr. Gowda's supporters opposed the move of the Vajpayee Government, the J.H.Patel Government supported it openly.

The two Janata Dal parties were so preoccupied with unification moves that the news about the formation of the zone being notified last year, and of the inclusion of Toranagal-Guntakal line in Hubli Division, has hardly evoked any reaction.

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Toranagal-Guntakal line hangs fire