BHUBANESWAR, April 15: Members of the Rath Yatra Coordination Committee has resented the indifferent attitude of the local railway authorities towards the Rath Yatra. The members are reportedly peeved about the fact that the department chose to send one junior official to the important preparatory meeting for the festival. The meeting was held at Puri on Monday.This is for the second consecutive year that the divisional railway manager of Khurda Road division did not attend the meeting on the plea that he was busy otherwise, sources said. The DRM did not bother to send a senior officer to the meeting attended by senior government officials and citizens, sources added. The official representing the railways reportedly does not have the power to take decisions on his own.Sources in the coordination committee said, the similar negligent attitude was evident during the "Navakalebar" festival last year when the DRM did not attend the preparatory committee meeting despite its invitation.The railway officerwho represented the DRM at the meeting last year took offence when he was told that some senior officer should be present so that a concrete decision could be taken at the meeting. Later, the DRM wrote a letter to the chief secretary protesting the alleged ill-treatment to his staff at the meeting.According to a senior government official, the divisional railway authorities did not pay heed to the committee's suggestion last year to provide a space near Puri railway station for a Sulabh Souchalaya for the convenience of devotees.The divisional authorities had also ignored the district administration's request last year for jacks which were required to stop the running chariots, sources said.Besides providing a few more bogies to the Howrah-Puri trains, the railway authorities have not taken any special interest to make arrangements for devotees during the car festivals. More than five lakh people visited last year's Puri car festival. As most of the devotees come from different districts of Orissa,special trains, connecting at least Cuttack and Bhubaneswar with Puri are a necessity, committee members feel.In the absence of trains during the Rath Yatras the devotees have to rely on buses. The number of buses is inadequate to cope with the flow of devotees. According to reports only 250 special buses ply against a requirement of 500.Last year the transport department had diverted 70 more buses from other routes for the car festival. Nearly 150 buses were plying to Puri daily.The telecom and postal department were equally irresponsible in not sending their representative to the meeting. This was also resented by the members of the committee.The meeting presided by Revenue Divisional Commissioner, Central Division, was attended by senior officers of different departments besides some senior citizens and organisations associated with the car festival.On the transportation of passengers, the meeting asked the transport department to organise at least 400 buses for transportation ofpassengers.Some members complained about the poor quality of the cloth supplied by Orissa Textile Mills for the decoration of chariots. It was decided that the chairman of the committee would take up the matter with managing director of OTM and request him to provide standard cloths.
