A former station head of All India Radio Jeypore, Gouro Chandro Tripathy, held a “satyagraha” in front of the Rail Sadan in Bhubaneswar on Friday, coinciding with the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, demanding railway connectivity to Odisha’s Nabarangpur and Malkangiri districts.

Tripathy said that more than 75 years after Independence, people in these two tribal-dominated districts continued to remain deprived of basic railway services.

Following his retirement from the AIR job in 2022, Tripathy worked with a private university and later formed the Dandakaranya Vikasha Mahamancha in mid-2024 to take up issues concerning tribals in four districts — Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur and Rayagada.

Tripathy, 63, said he had planned a three-day Gandhian-style sit-in protest in front of the Rail Sadan — the headquarters of the East Coast Railway. “I am a hypertension and thyroid patient. I had put up a tent to launch the three-day satyagraha. But some unscrupulous elements threw away the tent. I don’t know who they were. Now, Railway Protection Force officials took away my banner.” He said as he felt weak and there was no place for him to sit, he stalled the three-day plan. “I sat today. But I will continue to fight and raise the issue,” he said.

Questioning the treatment meted out to him, Tripathy said: “Is it the way to treat an activist? I am fighting for the cause of lakhs of people in my area and to raise the issue of the people of a tribal region who are suffering from decades of neglect, denial and deprivation of basic infrastructure facilities and are subjected to step-motherly treatment.”

He said he wanted to remind railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw that as he had been nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Odisha twice, people of the state had high expectations from him. “He cannot afford to ignore the cause of tribals,” Tripathy said.

Referring to the BJP’s 2024 election manifesto for Odisha, he said a promise was made to expedite the land acquisition for the proposed Jeypore–Malkangiri Railway Line and Jeypore–Nabarangpur Railway Line and finish the projects. “But unfortunately, neither the land acquisition was expedited nor was any specific financial sanction given in the 2025–26 budget to finish it,” he added.

He further said that since 2016–17, railway projects related to the two districts had been announced every year in the railway overlay but remained only on paper.

Tripathy said he had also sent a memorandum addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “In the letter, I raised the issue that while advanced regions of the country are promised bullet trains and world-class rail infrastructure, citizens of these two districts are still dependent upon bullock carts for the movement of goods and amenities and for commuting purposes too. This contrast symbolises the widening development gap between aspirational rhetoric and ground realities in backward regions,” he said.

Tripathy said the Centre should accord specific and full financial sanction to pending railway projects concerning Nabarangpur and Malkangiri districts, declare clear and binding timelines for their completion, and ensure effective monitoring to prevent further delays.