BJD to hold stir over proposal of shifting ECoR office

The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) today announced to conduct one-hour strike at every railway station of the state for three days starting September 12, in protest against a proposal of Union minister for tribal affairs and panchayati raj, V Kishore Chandra Deo to shift the headquarters of East Coast Railway (ECoR) from Bhubaneswar to Vishakhapatnam.

"We condemn the proposal of the Union minister. We would stage one-hour peaceful protest at all the railway stations for three days starting tomorrow," said BJD's youth wing head Sanjay Dasburma.

He urged the Pradesh Congress Committee chief Jayadev Jena and opposition leader Bhupinder Singh to draw attention of the Prime Minister on the issue and said the Prime minister should ask Deo to seek apology from people of Odisha.

Union minister of state for Chemical and Fertilizers abd Balasore MP Srikant Jena should also resign from central ministry protesting the proposal of his colleague, he added.

Deo had proposed to shift the base of ECoR to Vizag in a submission before Antony Committee, which is looking into the impact of separation of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh and the possible mitigation measures to counter any untoward situation.

Currently, ECoR has three divisions, Khurda, Sambalpur and Vishakhapatnam, under its jurisdiction. Deo said, since Vizag is situated in the middle of Kolkata and Chennai, the headquarters of the railway division must be shifted to the coastal town of Andhra Pradesh. He had argued, South Eastern Railway (SER) headquarters can be relocated to Bhubaneswar by annexing Khurda division to it.

BJD has termed the proposal to shift the zonal railway as conspiracy of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) against the state.