SRINAGAR: Expressing surprise over what he called the unnatural flagging off of the train service by Prime Minster Dr. Manmohan Singh on Tuesday at Banihal, Deputy Speaker of Legislative Assembly and MLA Devsar Sartaj Madni alleged that the decision might have been politically motivated to downplay the opposition role in the development of the state.
They have always been calling it Qazigund- Banihal railway line and it is natural that the rail should have gone from Qazigund to Banihal but what happened was opposite to it, Madni who is local MLA in Qazigund told KNS. He added that it might be the possibility that the government wanted to give a member of the coalition government an edge by flagging off the train from the other side of the tunnel.
Meanwhile rejecting the allegations, JKPCC President Prof. Siaf ud din Soz said that the train has to come from Udampur not from Qazigund therefore flagging off the train from Banihal was a natural exercise.