HimVani
Amb (July 6): Union minister of state for railwayd KH Muniyappa flagged off a DMU train between Una and Amb on the newly constructed railway line amid ruckus created by activists of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who started shouting slogan protesting his visit.
Soon after inaugurating and flagging off the DMU at 6 am this morning, hundred of BJP activists led by MP Anurag Thakur started raising slogans. This provoked Congress activists to raise counter slogans. Una deputy commissioner KR Bharti, who was also present at the function, told HimVani that ruckus was created by a group of people gathered at the railway station.
“The situation calmed down when the Union minister invited local legislator Rakesh Kalia (Congress) and local MP Thakur on to the dais,” he said. After flagging off a train from Amb to Ambala (in Haryana), Muniyappa announced that the broad gauge railway would be electrified soon.
Earlier last week, Anurag Thakur had tried to inaugurate the rail line, but the function was cancelled, allegedly at the behest of Union minister Virbhadra Singh. Thakur had alleged that Congress willfully waned to keep him away from the function.
The Una-Amb section is part of the 84-km Nangal-Talwara section, the
foundation stone for which was laid in the early 1970s by the then
Union railway minister, late Lalit Narayan Mishra. Una-Amb railway
lines has now been extended up to Talwara and is expected to link it to Pathankot and further till Chamba.