Members of the Bharatiya Bikash Parishad (BBP) led by its State president Surendra Panigrani resorted to a four-hour Rail Roko at the Brahmapur railway station on Sunday protesting against the non-halting of trains since July this year on the sheer pretext of Covid-19.
Mention may be made that, halting of trains at Brahmapur Railway station has become extremely imminent since lakhs of migrant workers of Ganjam district have started returning back to their work place to Gujarat, Maharastra, Karnataka and Tamilnadu in search of their livelihood as the Odisha Government failed to provide them employment, the agitators said. Owing to non-halting of trains in Brahmapur railway station, the passengers of Ganjam and neighboring districts who want to go anywhere outside the State, either have to travel to Bhubaneswar first or Srikakuam to board the trains, they lamented.
Arbitrary and unilateral suspension of halting of trains in Brahmapur Railway station is a clear violation of the provisions of the Indian constitution, Panigrahi alleged. Panigrahi also threatened to file criminal case against the State Chief Secretary, Chairman of Railway Board, General Manager of East Coast Railways and Ganjam Collector, if justice is not given to the public and their demands are unheard of.After the Station Manger gave written assurance that, all the trains as usual will be halted as per the schedule at Brahmapur from October 1, the agitation was called off.