Title - Protests end as rail link inaugurated

Abohar : Anna Hazare’s “India against Corruption” on Sunday called off the 64-day-old dharna and chain fast as the railways finalised the arrangements for inauguration of the Abohar-Fazilka rail link by the Minister of State for Railways, KH Muniyappa.Interestingly, Muniyappa will be the first railway minister to visit this remote sub-divisional town. He along with Northern Railway general manager VK Gupta will arrive here by a special train on Monday morning to address the inaugural function to be organised on the main platform at 10 am.The first train for Fazilka will be reportedly flagged off at 11 am.A ‘havan’ was organised at the valedictory function. The chief guest, Virendra Kataria, who is a former Congress MP and ex-president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress, led the organisers in honouring the representatives of 35 NGOs that provided logistic support to the agitation launched to express resentment over the delay in making the 42.11-km link operational. The foundation stone of the rail link was laid in 2004.The IAC team members, Shyam Sharma, Rajinder Jigyasu, Ashok Garg, Om Parkash Sharma and Radhey Shyam Sharma, honoured Kataria for making tireless efforts to get the project executed.While appreciating the concern shown by the NGOs for the Abohar-Fazilka rail link, Kataria said his next mission would be to get the Sriganganagar-Fazilka-Abohar-Ferozepur Express extended to the holy city of Amritsar.
Fazilka: Activists of the Sanjha Morcha, Fazilka, who were observing a chain hunger strike for the last 45 days, ended their protest this evening. The activists had been protesting against non-commencement of trains on the Fazilka-Abohar rail track that had been built at the cost of Rs 260 crore.Former Rajya Sabha MP Varinder Kataria offered Fazilka's famous sweet, Tosha, to members of the General Mazdoor Union, Fazilka, and the Manav Kalyan Parishad, Patiala, who were on hunger strike today, to mark the end of the protest."Since the demand has been met and the trains would start running on the rail link from Monday onwards, the Sanjha Morcha has decided to end the strike," said Railway Passengers' Samiti president Amar Lal Baghla and Social Welfare Society president Raj Kishore Kalra.

TRACK TRAIL
The foundation stone for the 42.11-km Abohar-Fazilka rail link was laid in 2004 The rail link has been built at a cost of `260 crore and was awaiting inauguration for a long time Members of various organisations have been holding protests against the delay in the opening of the vital rail link The Minister of State for Railways, KH Muniyappa, to inaugurate the rail link on July 16