Udupi: Local MLA Raghupathi Bhat and Yatri Sangha Chief RL Dias stopped the Ernakulam-Pune Poorna Express train for half an hour at Indrali Railway Station of Udupi Manipal, demanding diversion of Yashavanthpur-Arsikere-Mangalore Central towards Karwar, and not Kannur, as it was purely a state train connecting harbours and Capital city within Karnataka. The mindless politicians, Mamata Banerjee and E.Ahmed with collusion of K.H.Muniyappa of Kolar had diverted all 17 bogies to Kannur in Kerala which had 14 trains passing through, while Karnataka coast had only 2, the Konkan and the BMIC train (which is wrongly diverted to please Keralites, in spite of losses occurring for months).
Agitated over this cold-shouldering attempts by Railway ministers, on persistent attempts to have the Express turned right to Karwar, or divert half the bogies (say,10), the protesters in anger stopped Pune express as a part of ‘Rail Roko’ programme in which they hope to stop 3 trains. If no mention is made in the next Railway Budget about the Mangalore Karwar diversion, all the trains moving through would be stopped fro 24 hours, Bhat warned. Several leaders of Udupi district including ZP Chief were present on the track.