Kannur, Friday 12 June 2009: Union Minister of State for Railways E. Ahmed was accorded a huge reception on his first visit to his native town after he was sworn in as Minister in the second United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
E Ahmed who reached here by Chennai-Mangalore Mail in the morning was received by a large number of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) workers on Thursday.
The Minister was taken in an open vehicle from the railway station to the venue of the public reception. Addressing the function at the Sadhoo Kallyana Mandapam here, he said he was overwhelmed by the reception. Those who had dismissed the IUML as irrelevant were now facing decimation; he said adding that an unseen divine force had always helped the League at times of crisis. E Ahmed said that by voting for the Congress-led UPA, Muslims had now endorsed the IUML’s stance that the Congress was the only secular party that the minorities could trust. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had presented comprehensive pro-people policies that had earned respect of even the international community. As a Minister of State for Railways, his priorities for the State were completion of track doubling and electrification, E Ahmed said. Disclosing that he had got more representations since his swearing-in as Minister of State for Railways than the total number of representations he received during his earlier tenure as Minister of State for External Affairs, he said that the Thalassery-Mysore railway line proposal would also be considered.
Felicitating E Aamed, Kannur MP K. Sudhakaran said that the CPI(M) leadership should realise that now party State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan could not be shielded from being prosecuted in the SNC-Lavalin graft case. He hoped that E Ahmed’s ministership would speed up railway development in the State. IUML leaders M.K. Muneer, C.T. Ahamed Ali, UDF leaders P. Ramakrishnan, Sunny Joseph and P.T. Jose were present.
- By KOL News , Written on June 12, 2009
Congratuations to the Ministers and Members of Parliament.
We, members of Taliparamba Sangham of Kolkata, with immense pleasure and hopes have placed our appeal for a direct train to Mangalore from Howrah. Earlier, there was a direct coach facility from Howrah to Mangalore which was discontinued all on a sudden in 2001.
This discontinuance increased the hardships being faced by all nativs of North Malabar and South Karnataka working or residing in West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra and Eastern and North Eastern part of India. Each day it is seen that southern bound trains from Howrah are in great use by people belonging to this area who are Patients to Vellore and Mangalore, Professional Students and staff to Naval Academy and tourists. In absence of this facility, a great number of tourists are to find either other modes of travel or give up North Malabar area from their list of tourism centres. This has affected both railway revenue and tourism deptt.
We are sure that our present Ministers will be extremly serious about this genuine propblem and will see that the requests are considered favourably with immediate effect.