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Mamata gets brickbats from Left, BJP Aamar Sonar Bangla! 522 diagnostic centres, hospitals to be set up |
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Research tie-ups with IITs, DRDO to get boost Rajasthan gets 17 new trains UP gives thumbs down Concession for film technicians Women cops for female passengers Museums to commemorate Tagore on anvil
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Mamata gets brickbats from Left, BJP New Delhi, February 24 The BJP and the CPM reacted on similar lines, wondering when would the Railway Minister attend to the Railways. A similar reaction came from her predecessor, RJD chief Lalu Prasad. There was a sense of disbelief at her impunity even in Congress and UPA circles. Formally, Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmad commended Banerjee. BJP deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde said, “She has made announcements in all areas other than the railway. She talked of opening medical and nursing colleges, diagnostic centres, cold-storage plants, water treatment plants and power generation plants, delving into areas concerning agriculture, human resources, health, social welfare and even power ministry. She had made similar announcements in her last Budget as well but did nothing.” “She has sought no sanction from the Union Cabinet, the Planning Commission and not even from the Railway Board. She has not got conducted any surveys for all her projects,” said the BJP leader. CPM leader Basudeb Acharia raised similar objections. He said it “exposed a sharp deterioration in the performance of the Railways. Far from containing any vision for the future, her speech sought to conceal gross failures through misleading announcements and gimmicks aimed at the forthcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal”. The CPM said, “As per the ministry’s own estimates, over 1.7 lakh railway posts were lying vacant in 2009, out of which around 90,000 related to railway safety. The minister has kept completely silent on filling these vacancies, which can provide job opportunities to the youth.” Lalu Prasad nodded disapprovingly of Mamata’s plan of public-private partnership (PPP) for manufacturing locomotives and said, “I am disappointed by her budget.” Referring to Banerjee’s charge that Lalu Prasad had fudged accounts, the former Railway Minister said, “Since I had stuck to the age-old accounting practice, a legacy of the British, which the entire government administration adopts, I was expecting Mamata to introduce some new accounting methodology to put an end to any jugglery.”
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Aamar Sonar
Bangla! New Delhi, February 24 From Tipu Sultan and Bahadur Shah Zafar to Mother Teresa, Tagore and Bhagat Singh --- all major historical figures were invoked in the two-hour long budget speech to justify the Railway Minister’s love for the eastern state, and lend that interest a “national” edge. So, we had the minister dedicating several new projects in West Bengal to the national heroes, renaming many Kolkata Metro stations after them - the Park Circus station will now be called the Mother Teresa station; Maidan becomes Gostho Pal station; MG Road becomes Thakurbai station; Chandni Chowk will be called Tipu Sultan station and Rash Behari renamed as Bhagat Singh station. Further, the Railway Minister also saluted the sacrifice of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal Emperor of India. “He died lusting for two yards of land. I am dedicating a new project to him,” she said, announcing a new station building after the emperor at the Ballygunj junction in West Bengal. Her announcement was followed by quick murmurs: “Didn’t Zafar seek two yards for his burial in Delhi?” That apart, Mamata Banerjee also lent a new dimension today to the 150th birth anniversary of “kabiguru” Rabindranath Tagore, announcing two new museums in his memory. They’ll be located at Howrah (Rabindra Museum) and Bolpur (Gitanjali Museum) --- both in West Bengal. Not to miss another of rail minister’s offerings --- the Sanskriti Express to disseminate Tagore’s message across India. There’ll be another special train called “Epar Bangla, Opar Bangla” (after the divided parts of Bengal - on the Indian and Bangladeshi side). And Mamata’s justification --- “Tagore is the only poet in the world whose poems have been adopted as National Anthems by two countries --- Amar Sonar Bangla for Bangladesh and Jana Gana Mana for India. Since he produced many literary works in undivided Bangladesh, I propose a special train, in consultation with Bangladesh, to strengthen our ties.” Interesting also was the literary finesse in Mamata’s budget speech, which was not very well-rehearsed or delivered though, with the minister fumbling at almost every second location she uttered. That explained her apologies today, as she asked MPs for forgiveness for her bad pronunciation of city locations. “Please don’t misunderstand me. Help me,” she kept saying, prompting some MPs to say, “She can only pronounce West Bengal locations correctly.” Among projects announced today, several important ones went to West Bengal, which goes to polls in 2011. These include - Coach Factory at Singur (provided land is available, said Mamata); Excellence Centre in Wagon Prototyping in Railway Workshops at Kharagpur; Rail Axle Factory at New Jalpaigiri; Centre for Rail Research at IIT Kharagpur; Shambhu Mitra Cultural Complex at Howrah; State of the Art Loco Pilot Training Centre at Kharagpur, and Advanced Rail Track Training Centre at
Beleghata.
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522 diagnostic centres, hospitals to be set up New Delhi, February 24 "With the cooperation of the Union Ministry of Health, it is expected that about 522 hospitals and diagnostic centres will be set up which will benefit railway employees and their children in a big way," she said. Outpatient Departments (OPD) and diagnostic centres will be set up in Agartala, Agra Cantonment, Aligarh, Amethi, Amritsar, Balasore, Bhubaneswar, Bardhaman, Delhi Cantonment, Howrah, Itanagar, Lalgarh, Lucknow, Machilipatnam, Madhepura, Madhubani, Satna, Sawai Madhopur, Secunderabad, Sewagram, Shahganj, Shakurbasti, Sri Satya Sai Prashanti Nilayam, Srikalahasti, Trichur, Tumkur, Tuni, Udhampur, Una, Vidisha, Vizianagaram and Warangal . Meanwhile, the government plans to spend Rs 41,426 crore to modernise the rail network and improve customer services. Out of this, Rs 4,411 crore will be spent to lay 1,000 km of new lines and Rs 1,302 crore for improving passenger amenities. The spending would be financed through a gross budgetary support of Rs 15,875 crore, diesel cess of Rs 877 crore, internal resources of Rs 14,523 crore and extra-budgetary resources of Rs 10,151 crore. An additional Rs 9,120 crore would be borrowed from the market through Indian Railway Finance Corporation Ltd.
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Research tie-ups with IITs, DRDO to get boost New Delhi, February 24 In a bid to improve security of women passengers travelling by train, Mamata also announced that 12 companies of women security personnel called Mahila Vahini will be raised for the purpose. “A Centre for Railway Research is proposed to be set up in Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, for research in key areas of railway technology and to give a thrust to indigenisation,” the minister said while presenting the Railway Budget. The agreement with IIT Kharagpur was signed on February 13. "The Railways will establish strong research partnership with premier institutes like IITs, NITs (National Institutes of Technology), CSIR (Council for Science and Industrial Research) and the DRDO." Mamata said the Railways' ambitious vision of expansion and modernisation requires for its fulfilment a strong emphasis on developing indigenous research and development capabilities. "I am not happy with the functioning of RDSO (Research Design and Standards Organisation). I have therefore decided to revamp it and bring it in line with modern research organisations," she added. Based in Lucknow, the RDSO is a nodal research body under the Railway Ministry. Mamata said 17,000 trains ferried 18 million passengers daily across 64,015 km of the Indian rail network and, according to rough estimates, nearly half of them were women. "Security of women passengers will be improved by raising 12 companies of women Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel to be named Mahila Vahini," she said. “Priority will be given to women, especially those belonging to minorities, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, other backward classes and economically backward classes," she added. The minister said the RPF needed to be strengthened and modernised. "We need to modernise the RPF and we are giving full support. The Railways will bring a comprehensive bill for providing security to our passengers," she said. "As security is an important area, I have decided to involve our ex-servicemen to strengthen the RPF, which can give real protection to people," Mamata said.
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Rajasthan gets 17 new trains Jaipur, February 24 Though the people are happy to get 17 new trains, which is almost double as compared to last year’s nine trains, the state has again been denied a superfast long-distance train to North-East where the Rajasthani expatriates live in a large number. Among the new trains, major ones are a bi-weekly Duranto Express from Jaipur to Mumbai and four Bharat Teerth trains connecting several pilgrimage centres to the religious places in Rajasthan like Ajmer and Nathdwara. Mamata also announced a new Janmbhoomi train connecting Ahmedabad and Punjab covering interiors of Rajasthan. Apart from that, she has also introduced nine express trains and two passenger trains. The express trains include a bi-weekly Hyderabad-Ajmer, thrice-a-week Ahmedabad-Agra, weekly Jaipur-Pune and a weekly Kolkata-Ajmer Express, among others. Mamata also announced setting up of multi-functional complexes at Abu Road, Kishangarh and Sikar along with setting up of OPD and diagnostic centre - one each at Medta Road, Naguar, Pali Marwar and Rani, besides opening three-tier multi- speciality hospitals at Bandikui and Rewari. She has also proposed to initiate rail connectivity in socially desirable areas like Ajmer-Kota, Deoli-Tonk-Sakatpura and Nokha-Sikar among others. However, with the Congress ruling at both Centre and the state, the desert state was hoping for major announcements in strengthening railway infrastructure.
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UP gives thumbs down Lucknow, February 24 Giving her reaction over the Railway Budget, the CM said big cities and important religious and tourist places of the state had been ignored. No special project for the development of backward areas of the state had been proposed this time. “As a matter of fact only 10,000 km of new railway lines had been laid so far since 1947, of which the Congress ruled over the country for almost 50 years. How realistic is this claim can be well imagined.” For Uttar Pradesh new railway lines have been proposed for Etawah-Mainpuri, Amethi-Shahganj, Amethi-Sultanpur and Sambhal-Gajraula. Samajwadi Party spokesperson Rajendra Chadhury also hit out at the Rail Budget for having considered only Amethi and Rae Bareli where a bottling plant and commencement of work on the new coach factory has been proposed. “Amethi and Rae Bareli is not Uttar Pradesh. Mamata should have protected the interest of the state instead of pampering her alliance partners,” he pointed out.
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Concession for film technicians
New Delhi, February 24 Acknowledging the "enormous" contribution of the Indian film industry to the promotion of art and culture, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee announced the concessions while presenting the Rail Budget. “There are people behind the screen whose contribution is not well known to many of us. I propose that technicians of regional film industry when travelling for film production related work be eligible for 75 per cent concession in second sleeper, 50 per cent concession in first class, AC Chair Car, AC 3-tier and AC 2-tier in all trains, including Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Jan Shatabdis," Banerjee said. She also said the concessions under 'Izzat Scheme' for press correspondents and students of
madrassas, high madrassas and senior madrassas would continue. — PTI
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Women cops for female passengers
New Delhi, February 24 Presenting the 2010 Railway Budget, Banerjee said 17,000 trains ferry 18 million passengers daily across 64,015 km of the rail network and, according to rough estimates, nearly half of them were women. Security of women passengers will be improved by raising 12 companies of women Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel to be named Mahila Vahini," Banerjee said in the Lok Sabha. “Priority will be given to women especially those belonging to minorities, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, other backward classes and economically backward classes," she added. The minister said that the RPF needed to be strengthened and modernised. “We need to modernise RPF and we are giving full support. Railways will bring a comprehensive bill for providing security to our passengers," she said. The move has been welcomed by women who travel by train frequently. Shonali Mazumdar, a senior accounts executive working for a multinational firm in Kolkata, said: "Women are often harassed on trains. They are groped, teased and are victims of lewd remarks especially in cities like Mumbai and Kolkata.”
— IANS
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Museums to commemorate Tagore on anvil New Delhi, February 24 “2010 marks the 150th birth anniversary of Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore. In commemoration, I propose to set up a Rabindra Museum at Howrah and Gitanjali Museum at Bolpur, the place where Visva Bharati International University is located, of which our Prime Minister is the Chancellor. I also propose to re-model Bolpur station, inspired by the architecture of Santiniketan,” Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said while presenting the Railway Budget. She also said to provide better infrastructural facilities for the promotion of culture, the Railways would set up the Shambhu Mitra Cultural Complex for performing arts and a music academy at Howrah. The minister went on to add that the Railways will also establish a Railway Cultural and Heritage Promotion Board that will be responsible for coordinating and supervising all related activities on the Railways. “The 14 lakh members of the rail parivar come from diverse cultures and social backgrounds. There is a need to bring solidarity among this vast group through intermingling and interchange. I propose to set up a Railway Cultural and Heritage Promotion Board which will be responsible for coordinating and supervising all related activities on the railways,” she said.
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(Source: PTI/Agencies) 
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