A Railway Board order shifting the Mangaluru area out of the Palakkad division has opened a fresh confrontation between Kerala and Karnataka, with Kerala’s MPs announcing a satyagraha on Thiruvonam day and Karnataka’s business and political voices demanding that the state hold on to what it has gained.
UDF MPs MK Raghavan, ET Mohammed Basheer and Shafi Parambil said at a joint press conference that they will sit in satyagraha in front of the Palakkad Divisional Railway Manager’s office on Wednesday.
They called the transfer unjust and unacceptable, and said it would hurt railway development and passenger interests across Malabar and Kerala.
Mr Tharoor said he has drafted a letter to the Railway Minister that will be signed unanimously by the UDF MPs, adding that Kerala is entitled to a hearing, a fair process and a just outcome. MPs from the Palakkad division and beyond will hold a dharna. Replying to Tharoor, TV Mohandas Pai, chairman of Aarin Capital and former chief financial officer of Infosys, addressed the Karnataka Chief Minister directly and asked for a strong response from the Tiger of Karnataka to protect Karnataka’s interest. He thanked the Prime Minister, Vaishnaw and Minister of State for Railways V Somanna.
The MPs demanded that the August 21 order be kept in abeyance and that no further steps be taken until formal consultations are held with the Kerala government and the state’s MPs. They put the loss at Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 1,100 crore a year in revenue generated through Mangaluru port and the stations around it. Chowta had welcomed the order as bringing Mangaluru’s railways under one roof, and said the demand was among the priorities he took up within days of taking oath in June 2024. Krishnadas said the Palakkad division was literally cut up by the first UPA government, a reference to 2007, when the Coimbatore section went to the newly formed Salem division. He claimed the UPA years brought Kerala Rs 365 crore in all despite eight ministers from the state, against more than Rs 400 crore sanctioned for Kozhikode station alone under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and said the BJP has prepared a blueprint for rail development in Kerala.
He said the MPs had decided to protest a decision taken without any consultation with the affected state government or its members of Parliament, and that they want the decision suspended until a thorough discussion takes place. Chief Minister VD Satheesan had earlier called the decision unilateral and unacceptable, and said that by excluding Mangaluru Junction the revenue of the Palakkad division would fall sharply, hurting the division’s development. He said the state was neither informed nor consulted and described the Railway Ministry’s decision as highly condemnable. The Chief Minister’s Office has said letters will be sent to the Prime Minister and the Railway Minister, and that Kerala’s MPs will be used to press for a review. The Mangaluru division belongs to us, he said, tagging Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and Mangaluru MP Brijesh Chowta. BJP national executive member and former state president PK Krishnadas said in Kannur that the campaign by the Congress and the CPM is politically motivated and that the change will not affect passengers in any way. He asked whether KC Venugopal could get Shivakumar to say that Mangaluru station should not go to the Mysuru division, and said the allegations being made do not match the facts.
