Dharwad-Mysuru inter-city train seized' for Railways' delay in compensating farmer

Hubballi: In unprecedented action, the Dharwad-Mysuru inter-city train was “seized” by staff of the Harihar Senior Division Civil Court on Monday due to the failure of the Railways to compensate a farmer for his land acquired for construction of the Harihar-Kottur railway line in 2006.

The court staff and advocates confiscated train number 12726 when it arrived at the Harihar city station at 8 am en route to Bengaluru and held it up for nearly two hours, much to the inconvenience of passengers, while the Railway authorities pleaded with them to release it. The train was allowed to proceed towards Bengaluru only after the Davangere divisional executive manager of Railways and others gave a written undertaking to the court that the farmer would be paid the promised compensation within a week.

In the past, the Railways have seen bogies of goods trains being confiscated for their failure to pay compensation to farmers. But this time a passenger train was seized, embarrassing it greatly.

The court was acting on a petition filed by farmer, M.S. Shivakumar, whose 1.16 acres of agricultural land in Doggalli village on the outskirts of Harihar city was acquired for construction a railway line.