By K.B. Ganapathy, Editor-in-Chief

The Railway Department’s refusal to clear the blockage of the crucial two-furlong road in Bannimantap connecting Hazrath Gumnam Shahwali Dargah Road and Ring Road in city citing safety issues and its argument that trespassers cannot be permitted near the Railway track on that stretch is totally unacceptable.

The Railway’s attitude regarding the issue is appalling and is like a blot on the concept of public welfare. If there is a technical problem to build the road on that stretch, it can be solved with modern day technology, no doubt. If more land is required the State Government would definitely provide.

There are hundreds of instances across the country where traffic passes on both sides of Railway tracks. We have seen them filmed for Hindi cinemas. So much so, there are examples of people occupying the vacant spaces by the side of the tracks leaving narrow spaces just enough for the trains to pass by. We see many slums along-side the Railway tracks. Many such examples can be found all along the track at Srirangapatna, Maddur, Bidadi and Jnana Bharathi Campus. Won’t the ‘safety’ aspect, as cited by the Railway in the case of the Dargah Road at Bannimantap apply here? Are these roads next to the tracks absolutely safe?

It may be apt here to mention the landing of 15 Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter jets and a giant transport aircraft on Agra-Lucknow Expressway last year as part of an emergency situation drill. The IAF scripted history through this incident and demonstrated how flight operations can continue even after an airbase is destroyed by enemy forces. Therefore, how can the Railway block a public facility or a public convenience which may be needed for other purposes in case of an emergency? God forbid, but let us imagine there is a Railway accident at this spot and the injured passengers have to be rushed to the hospital. If there is no road at this two-furlong stretch, how can the injured be shifted to hospitals immediately?

In the world of bureaucracy, decisions at the top-level are taken based on the feedback by field officers or ground-level officers. In the case of the road that passes through Railway Goods Shed at Bannimantap, the Railway Officers at the ground-level have ignored the public welfare and have submitted a report to their seniors citing that the road cannot be cleared because of safety issues. Could be true, but one wonders if the Railway Officers have really inspected the road near the track before declaring the stretch as unsafe for truck traffic or have they explained in what way a two-furlong road here is dangerous to the Railway?

Senior Railway Officers too have blindly followed the feedback given by lower-rank officers and have ordered to block the road for truck and other vehicular traffic. Now mud and construction debris have been dumped on the road to prevent it from being used by the motorists!

So what is the solution for this deadlock? There is only one way out here. People of Mysuru must follow the example of a group of people who led a delegation to Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal in New Delhi and got the environmentally destructive Railway project from Thalassery to Mysuru via South Kodagu cancelled. They did not depend on any elected representatives or officers. Yet, they succeeded.