Bhubaneswar, Mar 16: Train services were disrupted in Orissa this morning when opposition Congress resorted to 'rail roko' agitation to protest the "injustices meted out to the state" in the railway budget. About 100 Congress activists, led by PCC president Sarat Patnaik and leader of opposition Ramakanta Mishra, squatted on the tracks at the railway station here detaining the onward journey of the Howrah-Chennai Mail. The Mail, which arrived here at about 4.40 am in the morning, was stranded for over five hours.
The leaders sitting on the stir also lambasted the Centre for allocating a meagre amount for 20 new projects to be started in the state saying, with these allocations it will take forty to fifty years for the project to be completed. The protest was also directed against the 'anti-people' policies being followed by the BJD-BJP government in the state, PCC spokesman Kailash Acharya said. The other platforms at the station wore a deserted look with only the stranded passengers of the Howrah-Chennai Mail milling around not knowing when the train will commence its journey again.
Bureau Report