THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:A high-level meeting called by the Southern Railways (SR) with MPs from the state on Wednesday is most likely to become a stormy affair. With the Railways yet to address the pressing problems, including track doubling, late running and cancellation of trains and others the MPs in attendance have plans to hold the Railway authorities answerable for the same. The meeting which will have the presence of SR general manager R K Kulshrestha will also be attended by various department heads, Divisional Railway Managers of Thiruvananthapuram and Palakkad Divisions and other high-level officers of the two divisions.
“For some time now the meeting called by the Railways has turned to be ineffective. It seems they were convening the same for namesake. Most of the time, follow-up actions were missing,” said Kodikkunil Suresh MP.
According to the MP, taking a cue from the previous meetings, the MPs had unanimously decided to corner the Railway authorities and to seek urgent intervention in issues including lack of punctuality, late running of trains, abrupt cancellations, the unnecessary halting of passenger and long-distance trains and others.
Echoing the same, N K Premachandran MP said with the Railways not keeping its word in fulfilling the assurances, the MPs will question the same during the meeting.Meanwhile, another MP said the meeting is just an eyewash. “What the Southern Railway often does is they seek the opinion of MPs, list the same and assure us of implementing it. But when it comes to implementation, they pass the buck to either the Railway Board or to the Railway Ministry,” said the MP. However, Friends on Rails (a collective of Railway passengers) secretary Liyons J said against the ‘illogical’ and ‘unscientific’ revisal of railway timetable they had plans to approach the Kerala High Court with a public interest litigation. According to him, a final call will only be taken after the outcome of the meeting of Railways with MPs.