Thaindian News

Raipur, Feb 6 (IANS) Chhattisgarh will seek an increased rail network for the state’s iron ore and coal belts from Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi this week, official sources here said Monday.

“The Chhattisgarh government has always maintained that the state has been ignored by successive governments at the Centre as far as providing rail connectivity is concerned,” a senior government official told IANS.

He stated that Chief Minister Raman Singh will strongly put the “need for a massive increase in rail connectivity in the state” before Trivedi here when the two leaders meet Wednesday.

“The state has not been given its due in rail connectivity for years. In remote and forested areas, Railways have mostly focused on running trains for transporting iron ore and coal. Locals in these areas are highly upset. That is why we finally saw a people’s movement that stopped the transport of iron ore last month from Bastar, to force the Railways ministry to expand its connectivity into the interiors,” the official remarked.

The official was referring to an anti-Railways protest that erupted last month in Chhattisgarh’s tribal areas. Hundreds of protesters had squatted on the tracks for 10 days from Jan 13 and stopped iron ore transportation from key mines in the Maoist insurgency-hit Bastar region that has roughly 20 percent of India’s iron ore reserves.

The stir was called off only after the central government invited a delegation of protesters to New Delhi where Trivedi agreed to visit the state to personally look into the demands.