Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal may have been quick to deny any role in Railway Board bribery scandal and ask for a thorough CBI probe. But his image as an honest man, whose integrity could not be challenged, has been demolished. Anita Katyal reports
Distancing himself from his nephew, who was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday night in a case of bribery for allegedly fixing a top level position in the railway board, Railway Minister K Bansal on Saturday said he had no business links with him and denied any wrongdoing.
The number of passengers were 8,421 million in 2012-13 which was reduced to 8,397 million in 2013-14.
The Railways ordered an inquiry, on Friday, into the train derailment near Jaipur that left six persons dead. Commissioner of Railway Safety, Western Circle, Prashant Kumar is inquiring into the mishap, railway sources said.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Madhya Pradesh Governor Mangubhai Patel, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Jyotiraditya Scindia, among others, were present on the occasion.
Prabhu said he was 'extremely pained by the unfortunate accidents, injuries to passengers and loss of precious lives'.
A relative decline was observed since Saturday night in the number of people from northeast heading for their home states in wake of the recent attacks in Pune, official sources said.
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Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to present a populist Railway Budget on February 24, leaving passenger fares untouched but rationalising the freight rates keeping the essential commodities aside.
Robots are now being used increasingly in the integrated-shell assembly line and robotic bogie-fabrication line. The unit may soon see its phase-II expansion, which will increase its capacity to 2,000 coaches.
138 members of Bharat Scouts and Guides from West Bengal, mostly aged between 10 and 15 years, braved their way back to New Jalpaiguri railway station from Sikkim before heading home to Barrackpore near Kolkata to narrate their harrowing experience.
'We hope there shall be more focus on existing projects and their completion rather than new projects.' 'Any new project announcements should be largely for decongesting the existing lines rather than new lines.'
The function to launch the project was attended by Director General of the Railway Health Services, V K Ramteke, General Manager of Northern Railways Shri Prakash, Chief Medical Director of Northern Railway R N Tripathi and members of Railway Unions.
Indian Railways on Tuesday entered into a joint venture agreement with the NTPC for setting up 1000 MW captive power plant at Nabinagar in Bihar, a move that can help the exchequer save Rs 400-600 crore (Rs 4-6 billion) annually on power purchase from state electricity boards.
The victory gave the defending champions a berth in the last eight of the Bombay Gold Cup hockey tournament.
There is talk that Rahul Gandhi will accept the party presidency at the end of the Congress conference. As he left for Udaipur, Congress workers turned up in large numbers at the Sarai Rohilla railway station in Delhi to see him off.
The woman along with her husband and son apparently boarded a wrong long-distance train. Later, as the train started moving, the woman tried to de-board, but in the process, she fell on the platform.
As the train which started from Howrah slowed down as a mark of caution running across freshly repaired tracks, a few muttered 'Jagannath, Jagannath', the name of the presiding deity of Puri, the destination of the train, but most were too stunned to speak.
After its forays into e-ticketing and hospitality, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation has tied up with travel major Cox & Kings for offering tour packages
'In this hour of grief, the least I can do is to take care of education of children of those who lost their life in this tragic accident. I offer such children free education at @sehwag.school's boarding facility,' Sehwag, who is the only Indian sportsperson so far to come forward to help.
Pressure mounted for the removal of Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Thursday as more instances of impropriety tumbled out amidst talk of a reshuffle of the Union cabinet in which beleagured Law Minister Ashwani Kumar may be shifted to a different portfolio.
Bharatiya Janata Party youth activists, including women, and police clashed outside Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal's residence in New Delhi on Monday during a protest demanding his resignation following the arrest of his nephew on the charge of accepting bribe to fix plum position in the railway board.
The Railway Board post of member electrical, which has drawn interest after allegations that suspended member Manesh Kumar had paid a hefty bribe for it, is much coveted due to the big-ticket projects handled by it, including the Rs 2500-crore train collision avoidance system.
Yadav, who returned from the national capital on Thursday after a trip that lasted three days, asserted that there was "nothing new" in the summons, even as he alleged that the central agencies were acting as per the directions of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Railways Minister arrived in New Delhi on Thursday morning for a meeting with Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and other members of Parliament to discuss ways for expansion of railway facilities in MP.
At around 9.45 pm, when the Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express train reached the Korapuzha railway bridge after crossing Kozhikode city, an unidentified man poured an inflammable liquid on a co-passenger and set him on a fire resulting in burn injuries to at least eight persons, police said.
Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Monday ordered a high-level inquiry into the stampede at the Allahabad Junction which claimed 36 lives, announced compensation for the victims and blamed the tragedy on tardy crowd management by the local administration.
In an unpopular decision, railway passenger fare was on Friday increased by 14.2 per cent in all classes while freight charge was hiked by 6.5 per cent with effect from Friday.
Inviting private sector for the development of railway infrastructure, the Indian Railways on Wednesday said the ambitious target of laying 1000 km of track per year would be financed through its internal resources.
'He has always loved to help people. He has donated his blood three times'
A decision on Law Minister Ashwani Kumar's continuance in the Union cabinet will depend on the view taken by the Supreme Court on Wednesday when it examines the Central Bureau of Investigation affidavit on the coal blocks allocation report, the Congress said.
Railway Minister P K Bansal's continuance in the Union Cabinet hung in balance on Saturday night as the Congress and the government received a fresh battering in the wake of the arrest of his nephew on the charge of accepting bribe to fix plum position in the Railway Board.
The state government had earlier proposed to construct a mega power plant in Singur with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, but BHEL had expressed its inability for the same. Though the Singur site was with the Tatas, its group chairman Ratan Tata had earlier said he did not want to sit on the land and could give it back if the company was compensated for the investment it had made.
In a sensational case of alleged bribery of Rs.90 lakh for fixing a top level position in the government, Railway Minister P K Bansal's nephew was arrested on Friday by the Central Bureau of Investigation which also held a member of the railway board.
While in a statement issued earlier, the Railways had said that these trains will be fully non-air conditioned, on Wednesday it said that these will have both AC and non-AC classes and fully reserved coaches.
The overturned GS and SLRD (Brake Van) coaches are still being restored and rescue works are on, they said.
Prem Chand Lochab's election to secretary general's post is in violation of WFI's constitution and he is now preventing the growth of wrestling in the country by demanding a postponement of the junior Nationals, said Darshan Lal, who had lost to him in the recent polls, on Saturday.
'Some are doing one vaccination with one mobile number and the second with another.' 'Creating more accounts will not multiply the number of slots.'
The MoU was signed in presence of visiting French Minister of State for Transport Dominique Bussereau, Minister of State for Railways Naranbhai Rathwa, Chairman and Managing Director SNCF International (French Railways) Jean-Pierre Lubinox and Railway Board Chairman K C Jena. The agreement will be valid for a period of three years and it will enable mutually beneficial cooperation between the two railways, Jena said.
The Yamuna river in Delhi swelled to the highest recorded level in 10 years on Tuesday and is expected to rise further, officials said on Tuesday.
