People's Democracy

TRIPURA

Struggle Finally Wins A Rail Line

MORE than half a century long struggle for infrastructure development in the backward and landlocked Tripura has ultimately got crowned with success, even if it appears to be a partial one at the moment. The state saw on December 27 the inauguration of the first phase of rail extension from Kumarghat in North Tripura to state capital Agartala --- a project set in motion by the Deve Gowda-led United Front government at the centre.

Amid the tumultuous exuberance of thousands of people, railway minister Nitish Kumar and Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar jointly signaled off a brand new six-rake train from Kumarghat station on its way to Manu station, a distance of 21 km in hilly terrain. The construction work of this arterial rail extension has simultaneously been in progress from the side of Agartala, and is slated for completion in the next three years.

The history of this struggle has been protracted and checkered. It was the legendary communist leaders Dasaratha Deb and Biren Datta, elected from Tripura as members of the first parliament in independent India, who took this struggle to New Delhi. In the very first session of Lok Sabha in 1952, they raised the demand for extension of rail line from Kalkalighat station in Assam to Subroom, the southern most tip of Tripura, through Agartala.

On the other hand, the state unit of the ruling Congress party never bothered about this popular demand, one that is vital to the development of this backward state hemmed in on three sides by Bangladesh (earlier East Pakistan). On the contrary, the state Congress leadership all along opposed and subverted the decades long movement for rail extension in Tripura. They were perhaps under the impression that this anti-state stand of theirs would jettison the communist-led Left movement in the state.

Going by the stand taken by the party’s state unit, the Congress-led centre too persistently ignored on a plethora of pretexts this legitimate demand of Tripura to catch up with the country’s mainstream. This is what plunged the state into a vicious circle that railway would not be feasible without industry and industry would not be feasible without railway.

In 1961, yielding to this long and arduous struggle, the centre sanctioned a meagre 15 km extension of rail line upto Dharmanagar in North Tripura, and train service on this line started from 1964. But the line was later allowed to fall into disuse. Still later the first non-Congress government at the centre, led by Morarji Desai, sanctioned another extension from Dharmanagar to Kumarghat. However, with Indira Gandhi’s return in 1980, the project ran out of stream. Train service on this 32 km long track started in 1990, after the V P Singh-led government assumed power at the centre. This was preceded by a delegation of 300 students and youth, belonging to the Left and democratic mass organisations, to Delhi in 1986 to press for rail extension and development of industries in Tripura. The then prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, gave them only a few minutes and did not make any commitment.

In 1996, after the Deve Gowda-led United Front government came to power at the centre, rail extension upto Agartala was sanctioned, and the job was slated to be completed in 6 years. However, the BJP-led government began to indulge in dilly-dallying regarding release of adequate funds for the initial stage of the project. The period also saw intermittent extremist atrocities on the project personnel in the difficult hilly terrain. However, the ceaseless struggle by the Leftist forces and the people of Tripura overcame all these difficulties. The December 27 launch of a train service from Kumarghat to Manu is part of the daily run between Silchar, headquarters of Cachar district in Assam, and Manu in Dhalai district of Tripura.

At the inaugural function of the newly constructed track, chief minister Manik Sarkar and railway minister Nitish Kumar heartily congratulated the project personnel for their efficiency and the people for their earnest cooperation for successful completion of the first phase of the project. Narrating in brief the decades long struggle of the state’s population for a rail line, Sarkar reiterated the demand for rail extension upto Subroom. He also urged upon the people to break the fangs of the Congress party’s heinous alliance with the INPT, the overground wing of the outlawed NLFT extremists who are out to derail the process of peace and progress in Tripura. (INN)