Commissioner of Railway Safety, Southern Circle, Bangalore, S.K. Mittal conducted inspection on the double line between Valadi and Kallakudi Palanganatham falling in the Tiruchi-Villupuram chord line section on Friday.During the day-long checks, Mr. Mittal inspected the new broadgauge track laid in the 25-km stretch from Valadi to Kallakudi Palanganatham railway stations, level crossings and overhead electrical equipment, besides traction substations.He was accompanied by Chief Project Manager, Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), Pradeep Gaur, Chief Administrative Officer, Construction, S. Vijayakumaran, Divisional Railway Manager, Madurai and in charge of Tiruchi Division Ajai Rasthogi, Additional Divisional Railway Manager, Tiruchi, S.A. Abdul Rahman, and top railway officers.Mr. Mittal commenced his exercise from Kallakudi Palanganatham by inspecting the entire stretch on a motor trolley. As part of his inspection, he also checked the four major bridges, 80 minor bridges, 13 level crossings, and four stations. Concluding his motor trolley inspection in the evening, Mr. Mittal...
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then conducted a high speed trial in a special train. The speed trial started from Valadi railway station and ended at Pullambadi where a new station building has been constructed to replace the old one. Mr. Mittal also ascertained the manpower requirement for the section.Only after the CRS gives his mandatory safety clearance can the double line section be thrown open to passenger traffic, railway sources said. The double line forms part of the 270-km Villupuram-Dindigul doubling project being executed by RVNL, a Government of India enterprise.Doubling works were split into two stretches – Valadi to Kallakudi Palanganatham and Kallakudi Palangantham to Ariyalur – and works commenced simultaneously.

BANGALORE: Railways will introduce special trains between Patna and Bangalore to clear the extra rush of passengers. Train No. 06513 Bangalore City - Patna Weekly Express Special will leave Bangalore City at 10.10am on Tuesdays and reach Patna at 9.50am. Train No. 06514 Patna-Bangalore City Weekly Express Special will leave Patna at 08.20pm on Thursdays and reaches Bangalore City at 9pm on Saturdays. The first service from Bangalore commences on May 21 and the last service will be on May 25. The first service from Patna will be on May 23 and the last service on May 27. It will have 17 general second class coaches and two second-classcum-luggage vans.
TEMPORARY STOPPAGE
Train No.17307 / 17308 Bangalore City - Bagalkot - Bangalore City Basava Express has started getting a temporary...
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halt at Nalwar station for six months from May 15 on an experimental basis.

The death of an elephant in a train accident recently in Uttarakhand erupted into a mammoth problem in the railways. It eventually resulted in the Chief Minister directing the police not to take cognizance of such cases.It all started with a train passing through the Rajaji National Park, a reserved sanctuary, hitting the elephant. The police promptly filed a case under the Wildlife Act against the driver, his assistant and the guard. Infuriated engine drivers, posted under the Moradabad division, reacted by refusing to ply the trains. Killing of elephants, they said, was never deliberate. Accidents were mostly beyond their control and happened despite the trains adhering to speed restrictions in elephant corridors.The Moradabad DRM sent an SOS to the Railway Ministry and Minister of State for Railways Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary rushed to Dehradun on Wednesday to discuss the issue with Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna. The Chief Minister ordered withdrawal...
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of the case and directed that no case should henceforth be filed when elephants are killed in train accidents.The problem is specific to Uttarakhand as other States do not file cases when elephants are hit by trains. It took the railways about 11 years to get three officials absolved of the charges against them in one such case.This year, about eight elephants have died in train accidents in various forest reserves. Fifteen died in 2012, nine a year before that and 20 in 2010.

Wherever traffic is chaotic, pedestrian subways and foot over bridges are a solution. There are, however, times when the most carefully planned subways and foot over bridges are rendered less helpful. The subway near Tambaram Railway Station is one such. Both the entry and exit points of the subway are encroached upon by vendors. This leaves very little space for pedestrians to walk. Adding to the pedestrians’ chagrin is the litter left behind by the vendors. Rotten vegetables and fruits mess up the place. With people using it for urination, the space around the subway is also filthy.Pedestrian avoid the subway for these reasons and cross the road.Kannan, a frequent visitor to Tambaram , says he did not know of this subway for a long time. “Whenever I alighted at the Tambaram station, I saw a mini-market, with vendors selling their wares. I could not notice a subway amidst the...
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crowded market.”

Want to board a steam-powered engine train or get a glimpse of the toy train? If yes, make a trip to the Regional Rail Museum in Perambur this weekend. Situated on the premises of the Integral Coach Factory, the museum is a gem for anyone fascinated with trains.And this summer, it has new attractions to draw in more visitors. According to V. Kalyanasundaram, curator of the museum, the audio-visual room will be buzzing with an array of programmes, based on themes such as the signal system of a train and manufacturing process inside the ICF. Six shows will be screened in a day. A model of an accident-relief train, a demo of a high speed train and the types of coaches (meter gauge, broad gauge, narrow gauge) are added attractions.The exhibits provide interesting trivia, which offer an insight into the history and evolution of the Indian Railways, says Mr. Kalyanasundaram....
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The museum standing on a six-acre land has introduced a number of amusements for families.The museum has been in existence since 2002 and draws close to 250 people a day. On Sundays, it is much larger (400). The website http://www.icf.indianrailways.gov.in has a lot more details, including how to get there. There is an entry fee of Rs.10. It is closed on Mondays. On other days, the museum is open from 10. a.m. to 5 p.m. For details call, 26146306, 26201014.

For a commuter on the city’s suburban electric trains, a drink of water would take the edge off the dog days of summer.However, most of the stations are marked by the lack of supply of safe, protected drinking water. ‘Bring your own water’, commuters feel, is the message conveyed by the Southern Railway administration.“The Southern Railway makes a lot of money by renting out space in railway stations for advertisement hoardings,” said G.P. Sarathy, a former Central government employee, alighting from a train at Vandalur.He added, “The least they can do is provide safe, protected and cool drinking water to commuters during summer.”Southern Railway officials were unable to part with information on the revenue earned, but sources said, the sum should be substantial considering the number of hoardings across all suburban stations.
MOST STATIONS IN DIRE STRAITS
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A visit to each of the 13 railway stations between Guindy and Guduvanchery in the south revealed a far from satisfactory situation.In Tambaram railway station, the contractor of the vegetarian light refreshment (VLR) stall has provided a stainless steel drum of water for commuters.
In Tambaram Sanatorium and Pallavaram, too, water has been made available near the VLR stalls.
However, in Chromepet, Perungalathur, Vandalur and Urapakkam, not a drop of water is available. The water taps and the little basins supporting them are mini reservoirs of refuse.
In Tirusulam, there is a dysfunctional water cooler, which only produces a meagre trickle of warm water from its tap. But the overhead water tank on top of the building that houses the ticket counter is perennially overflowing with water. In Meenambakkam, there is a public tap near the kiosk.
At Pazhavanthangal, the water cooler that supplies cold water takes many commuters by surprise. . However, in Guindy, the water cooler, like the ones in Chromepet and Guduvanchery among others, has not been working.
In St. Thomas Mount, a private contractor fills the overhead water tank and water is made available from a tap. A private operator stall sells pure, reverse osmosis treated water at Park railway station at Rs. 6 for two litres. Commuters are required to bring their own bottles. This facility could be extended to all stations, starting with the important ones on a trial basis, said K. Chandran, a commuter.
“The lack of adequate drinking water has been a problem ever since the conversion of metre guage lines to broad guage ones. Commuters boarding electric trains at Perungalathur every morning after arriving by long distance trains especially face a problem. We have given many representations to the Southern Railway, but there has been no improvement,” said R.A. Mukunthan of Perungalathur–Paranur Rail Commuters Association.
During a recent interaction, a senior official of Southern Railway said that a survey had been conducted on amenities in the city’s railway stations.
It was determined that they were all satisfactory and that in some stations, the quality of amenities was much more than required, he said.

Jalandhar:
Passengers commuting by train this evening were a harassed lot as they had to wait for long hours to reach their destinations reportedly owing to a "rail roko" at Mannewala in Amritsar by the farmers this evening.Consequently, the trains coming from Amritsar did not reach the city railway station after 5 pm and all those that were to depart towards Amritsar also remained lined up.All trains, including Shan-e-Punjab, Shatabdi, Paschim Express and Chhatisgarh Express, went late by three to five hours. The Shan-e-Punjab reportedly went to Amritsar via Goindwal Sahib, a longer detour.Sunil Sharma, a resident of Basti Danishmandan, said he suffered much inconvenience having boarded the Shan-e-Punjab for Amritsar. “I regretted having chosen to travel today,” he said.Since the protest had not reportedly stopped till the filing of this story, the ordeal for the passengers not getting an up-train...
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for more than five hours had not ended.Sharanjit Kaur, Commercial Movement Inspector,said the passengers were repeatedly being given updates at the railway enquiry.

Ludhiana:
A protest by farmers' organisations in Amritsar district came heavy on the commuters, who were left with no option but to wait for the trains at Ludhiana railway station. The arrival of trains from Amritsar was late by around four to five hours.All the trains scheduled to arrive from Amritsar in afternoon, including Shan-E-Punjab, Swaran Shatabadi, Chhattisgarh Express, Amritsar Howrah Express, and JanNayak were delayed. The Swaran Shatabdi was delayed by more than four hours, as the train was stopped by the protesters at Mannawala. Whereas, Shan-E-Punjab was delayed by around five hours.Ravinder Singh, a passenger, who was waiting for the Shane-E-Punjab said, "I had a urgent work at Delhi, early morning on Sunday. But the train is delayed by four hours which has disrupted my whole programme". "The delay in trains spoiled my entire day as I was going...
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to Ambala to attend a party," Ravi, another passenger.RK Sharma, Station Superintendent, Ludhiana, said "Trains have been delayed from Amritsar while we are trying to clear the track".

Over 6,400 railway employees are facing departmental proceedings for being allegedly involved in corruption during 2012.Departmental proceedings were initiated against 6,454 employees, including 195 gazetted officials, working in different zones and allied departments of the Railways between January and December last year for alleged corruption, according to a latest data.Of the total of defaulting officials, a highest of 1,637 were working in Northern Railway zone, 698 under Western Railway, 685 under Southern Railway, 588 in Central Railway, 411 in South Eastern Railway, 332 in West Central Railway, 309 in North Central Railway and 274 in South Central Railway, the data said.The departmental proceedings were also initiated against 243 employees working under East Coast Railway, 238 in North Eastern Railway, 217 in North Western Railway, 201 in Eastern Railway, 166 in North East Frontier Railway and 151 in South Western Railway among others, it said.The action came after the Railways conducted...
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24,876 preventive checks in key areas like passenger reservation system, e-tickets (specifically refunds after preparation of charts), account and disposal of scrap, and traffic undercharges.The railway vigilance wing effected a recovery of Rs 43.12 crore (till November 2012) as a result of these preventive drives carried out in various departments involved in dealing with people.
The national transporter, which has over 13 lakh employees, is divided into 16 zones across the country for the purposes of operation and management.
It earmarked 14 thrust areas during 2012 for intensive vigilance scrutiny in order to prevent leakage of revenue, which includes commercial earning through tendering, misuse of various concessions including free passes, e-tickets and checks in general coaches to detect fraud in tickets.
The vigilance department has been keeping a watch on officials whose integrity is suspect as a measure to combat corruption, an official said.
According to a data with Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), the Railways has topped the list of government organisations in 2011 with regard to number of corruption complaints.
As many as 8,805 complaints of corruption were received against railway employees followed by 8,430 against bank employees and 5,026 against Income Tax officials, the CVC data showed.

Chandigarh:
A 10-year-old girl, Kajal, who suffered an injury after robbers opened fire on the Jan Sewa Express yesterday, had not been provided any medical aid by the railway authorities for more than an hour. Adding to her family's woes, no Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel came to help them at the Rajpura station where the train halts for only two minutes. The family managed to get medical aid for her after half an hour when the train reached the Ambala station.The girl’s father, Munish Kumar, said his daughter was out of danger. She was operated upon by the doctors at the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, last night.Ironically, eight RPF personnel, who were deployed on the train, were clueless about the robbery even though the robbers had fired into the air thrice. A bullet splinter hit the girl...
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in the stomach. Interestingly, the police came to know about the robbery, which happened between Sirhind and Rajpura, after the other two injured passengers alighted from the train at the Rajpura railway station. Rather than inspecting the coach where the incident took place, the RPF staff talked to passengers when the train reached the Ambala station.Railway Senior Divisional Security Commissioner, Mohinder Singh, stated that as no passenger complained about the robbery on the train, the RPF personnel failed to take any action on time. He said an inquiry had been marked and action would be taken after the receipt of the report. The girl's father said the incident took place between 10am and 11am. A group of five robbers entered the coach and started snatching cash, mobile phones and jewellery from women passengers at gunpoint. He said when other passengers objected, they fired into the air and beat up two passengers. While the robbers were alighting from the train, one of them fired at his daughter and wounded her.

Chandigarh:The CBI DIG, Mahesh Aggarwal, had allegedly leaked the information of a raid by the Delhi CBI at the residence of former Union Railways Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal’s nephew Vijay Singla in Sector 28. A CBI Inspector posted at the Chandigarh office has levelled these allegations against Mahesh Aggarwal in his affidavit submitted before the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).The CBI Inspector, Balbir Singh, who had challenged his transfer orders, has submitted before the tribunal that DIG Mahesh Aggarwal was allegedly responsible for leaking the information of the CBI's raid at Vijay Singla’s residence on May 3.Balbir Singh’s affidavit, submitted before the CAT, reads: “The involvement of Respondent no. 3 (which is DIG Mahesh Aggarwal) in the leakage of the trap, which was laid in a case involving Vijay Singla (Railway bribery case), and the raid was delayed by three or four hours and in the meantime, the evidence was destroyed...
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by the Respondent no. 3 (DIG Mahesh Aggarwal), due to his friendship with Vijay Singla”.Mahesh Aggarwal denied all these allegations and said there were serious complaints against Balbir Singh. Therefore, he was transferred. On the CBI’s raid, he said it was the Delhi CBI’s raid and no information was leaked. More importantly, it was a successful trap. The Delhi CBI has already issued a statement to the media that there was no leak of information in Chandigarh, he added.
Meanwhile, former Union Minister and senior BJP leader Harmohan Dhawan, at a press conference held today, alleged that Mahesh Aggarwal also pressurised the CBI officials to clear the name of MC Joint Commissioner in a corruption case, in which Balraj Singh, a patwari of the Municipal Corporation, was arrested on February 13 this year while allegedly accepting illegal gratification.
The CBI officer, Balbir Singh, who was also part of the raiding team, has also stated before CAT that he was transferred as he did not yield to pressure by Mahesh Aggarwal, who wanted to exclude the name of MC Joint Commissioner Rajiv Gupta, who is either related or known to Mahesh Aggarwal, from the patwari graft case.
In this case, the CBI has filed a chargesheet in the CBI court against Balraj Singh. The CBI gave a clean chit to Rajiv Gupta, as there was no evidence against him.
Gupta said the complainant's case file pertaining to the demand of illegal gratification had never reached him. Patwari had named him just because he wanted to increase the amount of bribe. There was no evidence against him, Gupta added.

New Delhi: The hawala route was used for payment of bribe money in the Railway graft scandal, a preliminary probe by CBI showed, as the agency asked senior Railway officials to join its investigations. As the scandal put Railway Minister P K Bansal in the dock after his nephew Vijay Singla was among the arrested in the alleged Rs 10 crore Railway bribery scandal, the agency shortlisted 500 phone calls for scrutiny from out of the 1,000 intercepted calls mainly among the four arrested accused.CBI sources said that over 1,000 phone calls were intercepted during the two-month long surveillance on arrested member of Railway Board Mahesh Kumar and Singla. CBI has so far arrested eight acccused in the case. The sources said these calls were among four key players in the scandal- Kumar, Singla and middlemen Manjunath and Sandeep Goyal.The location of Singla during surveillance of CBI showed his frequent...
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presence at Railway Minister's residence and Rail Bhawan, the sources claimed. The sources said one important aspect which is under probe is how the bribe money was brought to Chandigarh from Bangalore.According to preliminary investigation, the initial bribe money was not physically brought from Bangalore but through Hawala route and Manjunath allegedly used his contacts in Delhi to manage money and got it delivered to Singla in Chandigarh, they said. The agency alleged that a part payment of Rs 90 lakh was delivered to Singla afgter which it carried out searches at their premises and recovered the bribe amount.Kumar was in between elevated from GM (West) to Member (Staff) in Railway Board, a post in which he was not very apparently interested. He then allegedly asked Goyal to help him retain the additional charge of GM (West) for which the middleman demanded Rs two crore as immediate payment.The sources said a discussion on the transfer of the Railway Board member in specific terms could not be traced so far in the intercepts of direct phone calls between Singla and Kumar. However, there were calls in which Singla is purported to be assuring Kumar that the work would be done. Kumar was allegedly assured that he will get the lucrative post of Member (Electrical) in exchange for "pecuniary gratification".

The Railways, with an annual loss of a staggering Rs 27,000 crore, is riddled with corruption. Unless concerted efforts are made to put it back on track and come down hard on those out to milk it dry, there may soon be no option but to privatise the bleeding behemoth, as many countries around the world have already done. By Girja Shankar Kaura
THE embarrassment over Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal resigning amidst charges of his relatives having received bribe for ‘managing’ a top posting may be very uncomfortable for the government, but the existence of corruption in the largest public sector organisation is a phenomenon well established by a series of massive exposés over the years.Recently, the Chinese government dismantled its railway ministry with the aim of improving efficiency and rooting out corruption. That raises the inevitable question: would such...
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a move help the Indian Railways fight corruption too?Corruption had been a major issue in China, with a senior functionary connected to the bullet train network being removed from office two years ago on charges of bribery. Another official of the Chinese railways was said to have bought a house in Los Angeles for $8,60,000, though his monthly salary was a few hundred dollars.
As in India, the Chinese railways was a mammoth organisation with 2.1 million people employed for its 80,000-km track. The Indian Railways employs 1.4 million people for its 63,300-km track. Even as its finances are in dire need of revival — the gross traffic receipts fell short of the target of Rs 1,32,552 crore by Rs 6,872 crore — there is no dearth of money to be made on the sly, to which the focus has now shifted following the crores-for-plum-post case.
JOBS ON SALE, SAFETY PAYS THE PRICE
The history of corruption in the Railways hit the nadir when Pawan Bansal had to be forced to resign as Railway Minister following the arrest of his nephew on charges of accepting bribe for fixing an appointment in the Railway Board. What makes the latest bribery scam involving Bansal’s nephew Vijay Singla, another relative Sandeep Goyal, top railway official Mahesh Kumar and three others dangerous is the fact that it pertains to the safety of passengers.
Kumar wanted to control signalling tenders worth Rs 50,000 crore, for which he allegedly paid Singla an initial bribe of Rs 90 lakh. In his recent Budget speech, Bansal had spoken of the continued thrust on improved signalling for ensuring better safety for train operations. But two months down the line, his ministry stands exposed for endangering the safety of 18 million passengers who travel by train every day.
The Rs 10-crore allegedly sought to be paid to fix the posting of a Railway Board Member clearly reflects that there is much more to be made while in that office.
For the record, amid allegations that Kumar had offered bribe to get the posting of Member (Electrical), the Railway Ministry came out with a statement saying no "relevant" board-level job was vacant and denied any wrongdoing in Kumar’s present appointment as Member (Staff).
The ministry said Kumar was the senior-most eligible officer fulfilling the tenure-linked norms. It said his career performance record fully met the necessary performance criteria for the post. "He was accordingly considered and appointed as Member (Staff), Railway Board, on May 1, 2013. No officer senior to Mahesh Kumar fulfilling the norms governing appointment to the post of Member (Staff) has been superseded," it said.
The ministry explained that as per tenure-linked norms, an officer was eligible for appointment as Member of the Railway Board if he fulfilled the twin conditions of having worked as General Manager of an open-line railway for a year and had a balance of two years of service on the date of occurrence of the vacancy.
FOR VOTES, THEY WON’T RAISE FARES
The railways operating ratio, or working expenses as a ratio of traffic receipts, deteriorated from 75.9 per cent in 2007-08 (when Lalu Prasad was the Railway Minister) to 94.7 per cent in 2009-10 (when Mamata Banerjee was the minister) before improving to 88.8 per cent in 2012-13. But there is little that the minister or officials at Rail Bhavan have done over the years to improve the health of the Railways.
A mere 13,000-km of rail line has been added in the 66 years since Independence while ministers over the years have used the organisation as a political tool to keep their constituency happy.
The penchant of every Railway Minister to announce a slew of new trains has put so much pressure on the organisation that it is bursting at its seams with no solution in sight. The perception is that those concerned — whether serving boys on trains, ticket checkers or members of the Railway Board — are only interested in making money, rather than improving the health of the Railways, which pays Rs 20,000 crore in pensions. This amount is more than 60 per cent of its passenger earnings of Rs 32,500 crore for 2012-13.
Ministers are reluctant to raise passenger fares. Instead, they keep increasing freight rates to fill the coffers.
As a result, passenger fares in India are among the lowest in the world, and the freight rates are among the highest, leading to people transporting their goods by road rather than rail. Roads account for 57 per cent of the freight traffic in the country, much higher than the US (44 per cent) and China (22 per cent).
India, according to a World Bank report, has much more passenger service than freight, which constrains productivity, raises cost and invites political interference in operations and pricing.
REACHING NEW HEIGHTS, ONLY IN CORRUPTION
The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) also sees the Railways as the most corrupt government organisation in the country. In its 2011 annual report, the CVC stated that the Railways topped the list of government organisations, with the maximum number of complaints of corruption lodged. Of course, that will also have to do with it being the largest employer.
In that year alone, the CVC received over 8,800 complaints of graft against railway employees — 500 more than the 8,330 in 2010. The 2010 figure had registered an 80 per cent increase over the preceding year.
The 2010 CVC report reveals that every third official penalised for corruption in the country belonged to the Railways. Out of the 2,982 officials who faced action in 2010, as many as 911 were from the Railways. In fact, the corruption index in the Railways has doubled since 2009, when 509 officials had faced the heat for corruption following the recommendation of the CVC.
The CBI has also exposed numerous cases of corruption by railway staff, the one involving Bansal’s nephew only being the latest. Among the cases that came to light were that of AK Bora, then Chairman of the Railway Recruitment Board, Northeast Frontier Railway, Guwahati (recruitment scam); and Vinayak Ramchandra Shewale, then station master of Byculla in Mumbai (was sentenced to two-year rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 4,000 for demanding Rs 2,100 from a person to sell juice) at Byculla station.
In December 2012, Arvind Vijeta Mittal, then senior divisional engineer, Central Railway, was sentenced to three-year rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 75,000 for amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
In October 2012, the CBI arrested a sub-inspector of the Railway Protection Force at Satna in Madhya Pradesh for accepting a bribe of Rs 2 lakh from a scrap vendor. He had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 10 lakh from the complainant for not implicating him in a theft case.
In August 2012, the CBI arrested a senior divisional engineer of South Western Railway at Hubli in Karnataka for accepting Rs 1.10 lakh from a contractor for passing a bill. The list has many more names.
CURTAINS TO DISPENSERS, THERE’S MONEY IN ALL
Officials say crores of rupees are gifted to vendors by the Railways, which lets them charge exorbitant rates for curtains and hundreds of other items that it buys every year — all this for the kickbacks they receive.
Atul Kumar, a railway store service official, had written to the then Railway Minister, Mamata Banerjee, detailing the modus operandi for the leakage of around Rs 5,000 crore each year. But his letter was not acknowledged.
"The Railways buys stuff from pre-approved vendors. After getting approved, the vendors take advantage and form cartels and quote exorbitant prices. They dictate prices and this is known to all. But due to the large kickbacks involved, or perhaps bureaucratic apathy, nothing fruitful is done," Atul Kumar had said in his letter.
What is even more disconcerting about the cartels is that the Railways itself first breeds the cartels, and then the cartels bleed the organisation.
Atul Kumar had came out with startling ‘facts’. In the case of fragrance dispensers installed in AC 2-tier coaches and toilets in 2005, the Railways Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) told the management to install a specific brand of odour-control system in trains. The brands were ‘Auto Janitor’ and ‘Microburst’ produced by a UK-based company and supplied by only three suppliers from Mumbai.
One of the companies imported the dispensers for Rs 415 each and sold them to the Railways for Rs 4,600 a piece. The dispenser refills were imported for Rs 226 and sold to the Railways for Rs 1,300 each.
Moreover, the Railways cut out competition by making specifications match a particular brand, leading to high pricing when similar locally made dispensers were available for about Rs 700 each.
Also in the case of side-bearer pads, which cost Rs 300 each in 2007, specifications were changed to benefit vested interests. By the end of 2008, they were sold to the Railways at Rs 4,160 each — 14 times the original cost.
Officials say every year the Railways buys goods worth around Rs 20,000 crore. The overpricing is by about 30 per cent, which goes from the exchequer into the pocket of the officials. Money can be made in all departments in the Railways. In 2004, a CAG report said the Railway Board undertook no independent cost analysis when a new product replaced an old one. Select firms approved to supply the new product ganged up, started quoting exorbitant prices, and made a killing.
Sources say not only do suppliers fix prices among themselves, but also find ways to fix the introduction of new modifications in collusion with the Railway Board and RDSO officials.
WORLD EXPERIMENTS WITH PRIVATISATION
Analysts say like most PSUs, the Railways, too, has become a liability for the government. Its annual loss is a whopping Rs 27,000 crore. By privatising the Railways, India can turn the world’s third-largest rail network into a profitable entity, they claim. Japan, the US, UK and Argentina have shown the way, and China is the latest. Before privatisation, Argentina was losing more than $1 billion a year.
China’s state railways administration, to be supervised by the ministry of transport, will take up the existing administrative functions of the railway ministry, while a private entity, China Railway Corporation, will carry out the commercial functions of the railway ministry.
Experts say India can also draw up a model that works best for the Railways and implement reforms by seeking international expertise.
Though privatisation may lead to increase in travel costs, the money collected from the higher passenger classes can be used to subsidise travel in the general compartments. The government cannot wait any longer to improve the health of the terminally-ill behemoth. And this scam has given it the chance to start the clean-up process.

Amritsar;
The sudden blockade of rail traffic on the Amritsar-Delhi railway line by farmers to protest against registration of a "false case" against their leaders pertaining to the mysterious death of ASI Kulbir Singh in Tarn Taran delayed the arrival and departure of many trains today.Various farmer organisations under the patronage of the Kisan Sangarsh Committee (KSC) blocked the railway lines at the Jandiala Guru Railway Station, about 20 km from Amritsar, at about 4 pm. As the Tarn Taran railway line does not have the facility of power, diesel engines were pressed in to cover up for the loss, which increased the cost of travel.Ferozepur Division Railway Manager Naresh Chander Goel said five trains were routed through the Amritsar-Tarn Taran-Goindwal Sahib route to reach Beas.KSC leader Satnam Singh Pannu said various farmer organisations, including the Bharitya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugraha)...
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and the Kirti Kisan Union, had extended their support for the agitation. He said following the death of ASI Kulbir Singh on March 6, the police had registered an FIR against their 44 leaders. Of these, 11 had been locked up in the jail, he said.

Following the acquisition of a portion of Maharaja’s College ground for the Kochi metro, the district administration has decided to take up with the State government the demand for the relocation of the college’s hockey field and allocation of funds for an Astroturf.This was after district hockey administrators and former players met District Collector P.I. Sheikh Pareeth on Saturday and raised the issue of the possible loss of Ernakulam’s only full-length hockey field.On Friday, Hockey Ernakulam had launched a signature campaign to demand relocation of the field and financial assistance to lay an Astroturf.The acquisition of about 13.50 cents on the southern end of the college ground for a metro station is likely to take away half of the hockey field. Hockey Ernakulam has demanded the relocation of the field to the western end of the ground near the college hostel.They have also demanded that Rs.3 crore of the Rs.7...
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crore compensation be set apart to lay an Astroturf.
“Funds from the compensation cannot be allotted without the State government’s consent,” said Mr. Pareeth, who is the chairman of Maharaja’s college development committee.
Sunil D. Emmatty, former captain of the Kerala hockey team, said the talks helped being to the collector’s notice that land to be acquired was not lying abandoned, but was an actively used hockey field.
P.T. Sellen, head of the Physical Education Department of the college, said an Astroturf, complete with flood lights, had to be set up after the relocation. He said this could easily done if Rs.5.50 crore was earmarked from the compensation amount.
“It’s just a fraction of the huge investment being made for the metro. If the proposal materialises, it will be big asset to the State’s sports infrastructure,” he said.
The Thottakkat Royal Family had allocated 16.50 acres to the college during its golden jubilee in 1925 when lack of space earmarked for a playground threatened to deprive the college of the Madras University affiliation.
The land was given on the condition that it would be used as a playground and nothing be constructed that blocked the view of the ground from M.G. Road, said Mr. Emmatty.
“When a portion of the ground is acquired, the compensation should be used to restore sports facilities and not to set up a library or hostel as being planned in some quarters,” he said.
T. Narayanan, a member of the Thottakkat Family, who retired as the head of the Chemistry Department of the college, said the lost land would have to be replaced. Acquisition of land for Kochi metro was understandable, but it was equally important to have playgrounds, he said.
Keywords: Maharaja’s College hockey ground, Hockey Ernakulam

CBI director Ranjit Sinha may be insisting that a probe be held against RPF Association secretary general U S Jha for "retaining accommodation despite retirement and against formal entitlement", but some of the top railway officers enjoying double housing benefits seem to have flown under the radar.Foremost among the beneficiaries is suspended Railway Board Member (Staff) Mahesh Kumar, who retained his Railway Colony bungalow on Sardar Patel Marg in New Delhi while residing in an entitled palatial house in Mumbai as General Manager (Western Railway).Kumar has bungalow no. 27 allotted in his name on SP Marg."Kumar could have retained his GM accommodation for next two to seven months under different criteria of retention had he started as a Railway Board member, but not the other way round," a senior railway official said requesting anonymity."The suspended top official retained his Delhi accommodation while being the GM (West) because of the clout...
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he enjoyed with Railway top brass in the Capital,'' he added. Railway top sources confirmed that another GM-rank officer Alok Johri, who took charge of North Central Railway (NCR) in mid-June last year, is also retaining his bungalow no. 17 in the same colony in Capital even as he lives in the GM accommodation allotted to him in Allahabad, the zonal headquarters.For Johri also, it's been more than 11 months but he has not surrendered his Delhi accommodation. The other in the list could be Madhuresh Kumar, who took charge of GM (East Central Railway) in Hajipur (Bihar) in January this year.He is keeping his bungalow no. 6 in the SP Marg colony, while he lives in his entitled GM accommodation in Patna.Top railway officials managing the accommodation pool in the Capital refused to give more names but confirmed the occupation of bungalows by the three aforementioned officials.#
These bungalows are of Type VI. "As per the rules for retaining of houses, only divisional railway managers and those serving in the North Frontier Railway (NFR) are entitled for twin accommodation, and there are different time periods extending from two to seven months under which you can retain the previous allotted accommodation.
However, in the latter case if it extends beyond two months you start paying the rent calculated in double and up to six times of what being paid usually in official capacity," a railway official told Mail Today.
When asked, railway officials refused to answer if these officials are paying the penal rent or retaining on pretext of other reasons. "The usual rent can run up to more than Rs 50,000 for the bungalows, which is even too little seeing the real estate value in the close vicinity where a room in Taj Mahal Hotel and Maurya is available for Rs 13-15,000 per night, or may be more," a senior official added.