BELAGAVI: Former Union Minister Jaffer Sharief who died on Sunday afternoon had a long-time connection with Belagavi. He frequently visited Belagavi to meet his political friends. The railway minister made a huge contribution in the development of Belagavi.
The senior-most Congress politician was instrumental in converting about 2,400 km rail line from narrow to broad gauge in Karnataka. He had sanctioned Rs 147 crore fund for the conversion of about 188 km-Miraj-Londa railway line. He laid the foundation stone for the work on February 2, 1993 at the railway station in Raibag of Belagavi district and completed this work in his tenure itself. This railway line helped in tremendous improvements in transportation and logistics and increased business in Belagavi. Sharief had lauded support of the then Central health minister B Shankaranand and Chief Minister Veerappa Moily.
Former mayor Siddangouda Patil recalls how Sharief was close to Belagavi. “I was the Congress district block secretary of Congress party when Jafar Sharief was Congress youth wing secretary in 1967. At that time, we had time at our printing press at Anantshayan Galli in Belagavi. He had special interest to develop Belagavi and carried a delegation from Belagavi to Delhi after becoming the railway minister during P V Narasimha Rao’s rule.”
In his third railway budget, Jafar Sharief had proposed to construct the railway overbridge(ROB) on Fort Road to the tune of Rs 1 crore. He had also reserved central government’s share of Rs 50 lakh fund for it. But at that time, the state government had not shown interest to sanction its share of remaining Rs 50 lakh. Thus, the much-needed project was closed in files only. However, due to the increasing traffic congestion, the government was compelled to construct the ROB in 2017 by spending Rs 24 crore which could have been done at the cost of Rs 1 crore in 1993. If this project was implemented at that time, it would have saved Rs 23 crore.