Aman Zutshi
Residents in Bandina village located in Litter tehsil of Pulwama district on Thursday staged a protest against the railway line expansion plan from Awantipora town to Shopian district.
Opposing the railway line expansion in Bandina village, a local farmer said, “Our village is very small and the rice production is low here. The govt has already marked land for the railway track and the way has been cleared for another with which we don’t have any problem. But the govt has proposed another railroad track which will go through our land to Shopian and it will cover land of locals, who have 1-2 kanals of land for their sustenance. Our future generations will then have no land.
“We request to govt to reconsider their decision of this railway line so that we and our coming generations don’t lose our sole source of livelihood”, he requested.
“We appeal PM Modi to pay heed to our concern as this is the only income source that we have”, another villager added.
The Railways Ministry has finalised location survey of five lines, all of which fall under the Kashmir division. The lines include the Baramulla-Banihal section (135.5 kilometers), Baramulla-Uri (50 kilometers), Sopore-Kupwara (33.7 kilometers), Awantipora-Shopian (27.6 kilometers), and Anantnag-Bijbehara-Pahalgam (77.5 kilometers).
