Railways to hire 100,000 soon: Lalu

Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav on Thursday ruled out retrenchment of employees in railways and nationalised banks.

"There is no proposal for retrenchment of staff in railways and banks," Prasad said at a function related to power transmission project in Gaya.

Prasad said over 100,000 vacancies to different posts in railways would be filled soon. He claimed that there was a marked decline in rail accidents ever since he took over the charge of the ministry.

The railways have earned good revenue in the past 2-3 months despite no increase in the fares and freight charges, he said.

The United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre is irrevocably committed to fostering a new era of development in Bihar.

Presiding over the function, Union Energy Minister P M Sayeed said effective steps have already been taken for generating additional 60,000 mw of electricity to cover 125,000 villages in the country by the end of the 11th Plan period.

He said the Centre would soon sanction projects for generating additional 200 mw power to meet the requirements of Bihar.

Earlier, Chief Minister Rabri Devi laid the foundation stone for the Rs 80 crore (Rs 800 million) electricity transmission project to be executed by the Power Grid Corporation under the Accelerated Power Development Programme.