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Lalu puts passenger safety on top
Chambers welcome Lalu’s freight train
Punjab off track
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6th pay panel to submit report by April 4
Darul fatwa will have global impact: Muslim scholars
SC says no to Chandraswami visit abroad
Justice Khanna cremated
Another SIMI man in net
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Lalu puts passenger safety on top
New Delhi, February 26 “The security of passengers is our topmost priority. We are investing billions of rupees on railway safety which is a reflection of our commitment towards safety of the rail network,” Lalu said while presenting the railway budget for 2008-09 in Parliament. He said Railways was taking due precaution to make adequate provision under Depreciation Reserve Fund (DRF) for timely replacement of overage assets. “In this context, I have increased the provision in DRF to Rs 5450 crore in 2007-08 and Rs 7000 crore in 2008-09,” he said. Besides, 5700 vacant posts of constables and 993 posts of sub-inspectors in the Railway Protection Force will be filled up through a comprehensive recruitment drive by May, 2008. Of this, five per cent posts for constables and 10 per cent for sub-inspectors would be reserved for women. Lalu further said an integrated security plan has been drawn up to strengthen railway security through installation of close circuit TVs at important stations, deploying metal detectors, baggage screening system and explosive detection and disposal systems. These systems would be installed at vulnerable stations through railway funds or public private partnerships. Prasad said due to sustained efforts to improve safety, number of consequential train accidents have come down to an “all-time minimum” of 195 in 2006-07 from 234 in 2005-06. Despite increase in traffic, the consequential train accidents per million train kilometre have come down to 0.23 in 2006-07 as compared to 0.28 in 2005-06. He further said work on replacing 16,538 km of overage track and overage signals at 2359 stations and rehabilitation of 2251 bridges utilising Special Railway Safety Fund would be completed by the end of this year. The anti-collision device system would be extended to the Southern, South Central and South Western railway in the next two years. A master plan has been prepared to install acoustic bearing detectors and wheel impact load detectors at important locations for on-line monitoring of rolling stock by investing Rs 250 crore on 65 instruments, he said. The government also proposes to install smoke and fire detection systems in all trains in a phased manner at a cost of Rs 700 crore. While construction of 582 rail over-bridges and under-bridges is in progress. There are 16600 manned level crossings and 18200 unmanned level crossings in Indian Railways. Of the 195 consequential train accidents in 2006-07, 72 were at unmanned level crossings.
— PTI
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Chambers welcome Lalu’s freight train
Railways to go
green “Green” and “clean”. This is how Railways intend its future to be. Railways minister Lalu Prasad today announced that he wanted a permanent end to the problem of discharge from train toilets by providing “Green Toilets” in all 36,000 coaches by the end of the 11th Plan period. The Rs 4000-cr project will address the problem of discharge, the primary cause for poor sanitation at the stations, he said, adding that several designs of discharge-free green toilets had been developed and results of the trails were extremely encouraging.
New Delhi, February 26 According to the chamber, more freight would only come to the railways if they become price competitive, provide economical freight rates in wake of the recent fuel price hike, address capacity constraints on the high density corridors, improve terminal and logistic management and, importantly, move goods with speed and safety. Though the railway budget has announced some measures under the public-private partnership but more is required to move towards corporatisation and decentralisation of power, says PHD Chambers. CII has said in the 2008 Budget, the railway minister has focused on building capacity for the future by making required investments in infrastructure. According to Sunil Mittal, president, CII, projects for port connectivity, freight corridors, container terminals and improved passenger amenities that were announced in the Budget will go a long way in making India’s railway network more modern and efficient. With improvement in efficiency, the railways are also moving towards expanding capacities. The CII welcomed the partnership with the private sector, opening up yet another avenue for industry to participate in the spectacular growth of the railways. The minister announced public-private partnership schemes to be launched for attracting an investment of Rs 1,00,000 crore over the next five years for developing world-class stations, rolling stock and other logistics. FICCI president Rajeev Chandrasekhar has welcomed the railway minister’s announcement of cuts in passenger fares and freight rates, particularly on diesel and petrol, by 5 per cent. “This is a good and strong anti-inflationary measure,” he pointed out. The railway budget has attempted to address the transport requirement of an expanding economy. Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said increased profit and operating ratio speaks of efficiency of the railways. G.K. Gupta, president, FIEO, has complimented the railways minister for his decision to import wagons to bridge the gap between supply and demand. FIEO has demanded that private freight operators may be allowed to transport all commodities instead of few, which is hampering the growth of private operators and their investment.
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Punjab off track
Chandigarh, February 26 Since the railway coach factory, Kapurthala, was set up in Punjab long ago, no other railway project to generate direct employment has been set up in the state. While three new trains — Amritsar-Saharsa Jan Sadharan Express (weekly), Amritsar-Kochuveli Express (weekly) and Delhi-Pathankot Express (tri-weekly) have been proposed, the rail connectivity between important cities and state capital Chandigarh does not exist. While the Chandigarh-Ludhiana railway line project is behind schedule, the Railways is least interested in regularly running a train between Amritsar and Chandigarh. Terming it as an election Budget focused on certain states, passengers feel that there is an urgent need to upgrade facilities at all major stations. A long pending proposal to run diesel multiple units on different inter state routes is far from implemented. The frequency of trains from Bathinda to other parts of the country is meagre. Avinash Rai Khanna, a Member of Parliament from Hoshiarpur, said the connectivity of the state capital with important cities was urgently required. He said the state was never commended for reporting the least number of cases of passengers travelling without ticket. He said the DMU running between Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar needed to be extended up to Amritsar. However, the announcement to run a special train between Anandpur Sahib and Patna Sahib to Nanded to commemorate the tercentenary function of Shri Guru Granth Sahib Gurta Gaddi has been widely acclaimed. This fulfils the demand of passengers for a direct train link between holy places. Ashwani Kumar, minister of state for commerce and industry, has thanked the railway minister for starting the New Delhi-Pathankot train via Amritsar. Earlier the train used to run from Jalandhar to Pathankot, skipping Amritsar. Increasing the frequency of the Amritsar-Saharsa Garib Rath from weekly to tri-weekly and the New Delhi-Jammu Tawi Rajdhani Express from weekly to bi-weekly has also been welcomed.
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Stall privatisation move: Left
New Delhi, February 26 Railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav dismissed all allegations of discrimination, saying that the Railways was expanding in every part of the country. He said suggestions made by members during discussion on the Budget would be looked into. Expressing BJP’s disappointment over the Railway Budget, party leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra said people had been let down and members cutting across party lines and regions had shown their disapproval. He said a large number of new trains announced by the minister in the last year’s Budget were yet to start and the tall promises of improving condition of railway stations were yet to translate into reality. Malhotra said Lalu Yadav had spoken of lowering fares but several existing passenger or night trains were being named as super fast express trains to levy 20 per cent extra fare. Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan termed the budget as extremely productive. “It continues to tread the path of success set in the past few years and is oriented to serve the central focus of the UPA, which is the ‘aam admi’,” she said. Criticising the moves toward privatisation of some services, CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta said it seemed that the Budget had been prepared by finance minister P. Chidambaram and not Lalu Yadav. He said it was a budget for the affluent middle class and there was no benefit for travellers of local trains and monthly ticket holders.
His party colleague Sudhakar Reddy went a step forward to term the budget as “parochial” and “imbalanced.” He said the demands of West Bengal had not been met. Referring to the positive features in the Budget, the CPM said reduction in passenger fares was a welcome step.
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1. Jaipur-Chandigarh
(tri-weekly) viaRewari-Bhiwani 2. Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam Express
(tri-weekly) 3. Varanasi-Delhi (tri-weekly) 4.
Bangalore-Kochuveli(tri-weekly) 5. Ranchi-Delhi (bi-weekly) 6. Jammu
Tawi-Kathgodam (weekly) (in lieu of Nizamuddin-Dehradun Garib Rath
Express announced in the Railway Budget 2007-08) 7.
Yesvantpur-Puducherry (tri-weekly) 8. Jabalpur-Mumbai (bi-weekly) 9.
Delhi-Jaynagar (bi-weekly) via Patna 10. Pune-Nagpur (tri-weekly) New
trains in region 1. Amritsar-Saharsa Jan Sadharan Express (Weekly) via
Hasanpur 2. Amritsar-Kochuveli Express (Weekly) 3. Delhi-Pathankot
Express (Tri-weekly) via Amritsar Increase in frequency 1. 2425/2426
New Delhi-Jammu Tawi Rajdhani Express from weekly to daily 2. 2203/2204
Amritsar-Saharsa Garib Rath from bi-weekly to tri-weekly
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6th pay panel to submit report by April 4
New Delhi, February 26 “The commission is to finalise and submit its report within 18 months of its constitution, that is April 4, 2008,” minister of state for finance Pawan Bansal told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. About the implementation of the commission’s recommendations, Bansal said, “Since the report is to be submitted, the time frame for its implementation cannot be stated”. With regard to the terms of reference of the Sixth Pay Commission, he said the commission was examining the desirability and need to sanction any interim relief till the time its recommendations were made. On media reports about a huge hike in salaries of civil service staff, Bansal added that the Commission is yet to finalise and submit its report, so the information doing rounds in media might be speculative. The commission was constituted in October 2006 to recommend comprehensive changes in the salary structure of government employees. It would give recommendations concerning the pay structure of government employees comprising industrial and non-industrial Central government employees, all India services, armed forces personnel and employees in the union territories. Besides, the commission would examine the pay structure for the Indian Audit and Accounts Department, regulatory bodies set up by Acts in Parliament and Supreme Court employees, Bansal said.
— PTI
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Darul fatwa will have global impact: Muslim scholars
Aligarh, February 26 Noted Islamic scholar Saud Alam Qasmi, dean of Theology at the Aligarh Muslim University, says: “We fully endorse the Deoband fatwa against terrorism because there is not a single school of religious thought in Islam which endorses the killings of innocent persons in retaliation of any criminal act.” Qasmi, who belongs to the Deoband school of thought, also extended full support to the declaration which underscores the fact that “Muslims are being singled out and punished for all acts of terror and organised violence whereas others responsible for similar crimes are not being dealt with according to the law”. Maulana Yasin Mazhar Siddiqui, a senior Islamic theologist said: “The fatwa should be welcomed by the entire Islamic world,” adding revenge killing of innocent people was unambiguously prohibited by the holy Quran. Meanwhile, the BJP today welcomed the fatwa (edict) issued by clerics of Darul Uloom of Deoband distancing Islam from terror and said it was a good step. Asked for the BJP's reaction on the fatwa, party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said Deoband distancing itself from terror should be highlighted because many terror suspects were no longer from the lower strata of society. Even students in higher professional institutions were taking to terror and it was not a good sign.
— PTI/UNI
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SC says no to Chandraswami visit abroad
New Delhi, February 26 A three-judge Bench, comprising Justices B.N. Agrawal, G.S. Singhvi and Aftab Alam, stayed the order of the Delhi High Court granting permission to Chandraswami to go abroad. The apex court also issued notice to Chandraswamy on a petition filed by the Enforcement Directorate against the order of the high court. Counsel for the directorate today mentioned the matter before apex court and contended: “Chandraswami if allowed to visit abroad may not return at all and he is facing serious allegation of violating the provisions of FERA and has illegally received huge amount of money from other countries.” The apex court also fixed March 10 for hearing of the case. — UNI
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New Delhi, February 26 A large number of his friends and admirers besides family members were present at the Lodhi crematorium, where his son lit the funeral pyre amidst chanting of vedic hymns. Those present included senior BJP leader L.K. Advani, Justice J.S. Verma (retd), Justice Rajinder Sachar (retd) and veteran journalist Kuldeep Nayyar. Wreaths were also laid on behalf of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee. Justice Khanna, who won international acclaim for his judgement during emergency that courts cannot shut the doors for citizens against illegal detention, passed away in his sleep yesterday. He was 95. He is survived by three sons and a daughter. Justice Khanna, who served as the judge of the apex court from 1971 to 1977, was for a long time the member of the PTI board, of which he became the chairman. He was the lone dissenter in a five-member Bench which heard the habeas corpus case (ADM Jabalpur vs Shivkant Shukla) during emergency rule. In the 4-1 judgement of April, 1976, the majority accepted the contention that if a person is tortured or his wife spirited away and other family members detained without the legal authority, there was no remedy and the court’s doors were closed, a view opposed by Khanna. Khanna held that the state had no power to deprive a person of his life or personal liberty without the authority of law. — PTI
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Another SIMI man in net
Bangalore, February 26 This is the second suspected SIMI activist to be arrested by the Corps of Detectives, which is investigating the alleged role of SIMI activists in helping Lashkar-e-Toiba militants to spread terror in the state. Earlier, suspected SIMI leader Mohammad Yahya Kamakutty was arrested from the same Gurappanapalya locality here a few days ago. According to corps sources here today, Sameer was an accused in the Godhra riots and was concentrating on networking SIMI activities in Kerala. Some ‘jehadi’ material, a laptop and pen drives have been seized from him. The corps said Sameer, who belonged to Gulbarga, was a nodal member of SIMI in the city before it was banned. According to the police, it has obtained the identities of six more suspected SIMI activists from Sameer’s computer.
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