Kapurthala, August 26
Coaches of the LHB Sealdah Rajdhani rake have been fitted with Controlled Discharge Toilet System (CDTS) to keep the railway platforms clean.

Manufactured at the Rail Coach Factory (RCF) here, the stainless steel rake was flagged off yesterday by Mr R.R. Bhandari, Member Mechanical, Railway Board, and ex-officio Secretary to the Government of India.

The rake consists of first AC, second AC and 3-Tier AC sleeper coaches, and pantry and power cars.

The coaches have panoramic windows, high-level of sound and thermal insulation, pleasant interiors and more riding comfort.

These also have a fire retardant furnishing and features to prevent coaches from climbing over one another in case of a collision.

These have been fitted with roof-mounted air-conditioning units with humidity control and a modern public address system. The new coaches are lighter, and longer for more passenger room.

RCF has already manufactured and supplied 290 such coaches. These are now part of the Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhani, Kolkata-New Delhi Rajdhani and Bhopal Shatabdi. Indian Railways plans put these coaches in all Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains.

Meanwhile, Mr Bhandari also inspected Garib Rath coaches being manufactured at the RCF. These AC 3-tier coaches will have more berths than the current coaches.

The factory plans to manufacture 56 such AC sleeper coaches and 12 power cars for the Garib Rath this financial year. These coaches are now at an advanced stage of production.

Mr Bhandari also announced a cash reward for the RCF employees for manufacturing Garib Rath coaches at a short notice. The Minister for Railways, Mr Lalu Prashad Yadav, had proposed the Garib Raths in his February 26 budget speech.

The RCF employees were also given two more rewards for the manufacturing the fifth LHB Rajdhani rake and for boosting coach export.
Addressing the officers and the staff, Mr Bhandari expressed satisfaction over the RCF’s efforts in improving the quality of coaches.

He complimented the employees for their past performances.

The factory’s General Manager, Mr Pratap Srivastava, and Chief Mechanical Engineer, Mr D.A. Anand, were also present.

Jalandhar, August 26
Potato growers in the district will now get uninterrupted power supply for 10 hours, four days a week.

The long-pending demand of the growers was accepted by the Punjab State Electricity Board’s Chief Engineer, North Zone, here today.

The growers’ wish materialised after the setting up of a Committee of Agricultural Consumers of North Zone recently. The body held its first meeting with the PSEB’s Chief Engineer, Mr G.S. Gill, yesterday.

Mr Gill told the committee that he would ask the Chief Engineer, System Operations and Communications, Mr Jot Inder, to identify potato feeders where power supply could be started.

The potato growers had demanded that they be given power supply on a priority basis as an incentive for crop diversification. 

Jalandhar, August 26
Two rival groups of a school’s management committee today levelled allegations against one each other over an attempt to forcibly occupy the school premises and a gurdwara.

Addressing a press conference in the campus, the president of the management committee of the Guru Amar Dass Public School, Mr Gursher Singh, alleged that members of the rival group, along with nearly 100 men, attempted to forcibly occupy the premises of the school and Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha in Model Town yesterday.

He said he had lodged a complaint in this regard with the district police.

The dispute began last October when Mr Gursher Singh removed Mr Ratnesh Singh Sodhi from the post of the president after allegations that he had formed an illegal trust and misappropriated funds. But the other party made counter-allegations.

Mr Ratnesh Singh Sodhi called the election of Mr Gursher Singh as the president of Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha illegal. The previous Deputy Commissioner had even got an inquiry conducted into the matter. The report submitted in May this year had given a clean chit to Mr Gursher Singh. On the contrary, it said the administration had indicted Mr Ratnesh Singh Sodhi and Dr Mandeep Singh Sethi of forming an illegal trust against the constitution of the registered body, without a resolution.

Jalandhar, August 26
A youth was arrested for allegedly posing as a proxy candidate in a PSEB examination today.

Vinay Kumar had allegedly appeared for a paper on Punjabi on behalf of his taekwondo coach at the Government Senior Secondary School in Ladowali Road. The real candidate, B.N.L. Murthy, is a resident of Karnataka. Vinay, a resident of Railway Colony, was nabbed this morning while he was appearing for the Punjabi-B paper by forging the roll number slip. He had put his own photograph above the name of his coach. Vinay had also allegedly appeared for the Punjabi-A paper on behalf of Murthy (roll number 108179) on August 23. The accused reportedly confessed that Murthy was working as a taekwondo coach at PAP and wanted to clear the subject to fulfill the recruitment criteria. An FIR has been registered against Vinay.