Kerala, T'Nadu MPs to discuss Salem Division with Lalu

New Delhi, Sep 10 (UNI) Members of Parliament from Kerala and Tamil Nadu will hold a meeting tomorrow with Railway Minister Lalu Prasad in order to find an amicable solution to the controversy over the creation of a new railway division at Salem by bifurcating the existing Palakkad division in Kerala.

The meeting would take place at Rail Bhavan at 1600 hrs tomorrow where the proposal to redraw the Palakkad Division for creating Salem Division in Tamil Nadu -- the 16th Railway Division -- would be discussed, sources said.

Besides Mr Prasad and MPs from Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Minister of State for Railways R Velu and Railway Board Chairman K C Jena would also attend the meeting.

The meeting has to be seen in the backdrop of discussions held between Mr Prasad and Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's residence yesterday.

Following the meeting, Dr Singh promised a special railway package for the southern state. The meeting also decided to have a 're-look' into the proposed jurisdiction of Salem division in the context of the complaint of Kerala that a major chunk of the Palakkad divison had been added to the new division.

Meanwhile, the Kerala MPs submitted a 13-point proposal to the Railway Minister for comprehensive development of railways in their state.

The proposals are to be forwarded to the Prime Minister by Mr Prasad. A special package is likely to be finalised by Dr Singh on the basis of these proposals.

The sources said the meeting would strive to re-draw the jurisdiction in a balanced way so as to prevent room for further complaint from Kerala or Tamil Nadu.

''This will help the Centre to go ahead with its reported plan to inaugurate the new Salem division on September 14 with the cooperation of Kerala,'' the sources added.

Mr Achuthanandan, who held a separate meeting with Mr Prasad, had later told mediapersons that Kerala was not against the creation of Salem division, but opposed only the move to 'weaken' one of the oldest railway divisons in Palakkad.

The complaint of Kerala, whose MPs had staged agitations inside and outside Parliament on the Salem division issue, is that the Palakkad division would be left with only 545 km of railwayline, in place of the present 843 km, after the bifurcation.

Major political parties in Tamil Nadu had launched an agitation last month and organised a rail roko to protest the delay in the inauguration of Salem division.

UNI