ProUI

GUWAHATI: Fears of fresh unrest over statehood demands in Assam resurfaced after the Centre informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that it has no plans to create any more new states in the country. Ethnic groups seeking separate states are now skeptical about the objective of the tripartite talks for which they have been invited by the Centre to New Delhi next month.The All Koch Rajbongshi Students' Union (AKRSU), which is leading the demand for a separate state of Kamatapur for the Koch-Rajbongshi community, has threatened to call off talks if the first round scheduled on September 3 does not turn out to be encouraging. The All Bodo Students' Union, on the other hand, which is demanding a separate state of Bodoland, has also threatened to review its decision to suspend the 24-hour rail blockade it had called on September 10 after the tripartite talks to be held on September 4.The AKRSU now wants the Centre to apprise both the houses of Parliament about the objective of the tripartite talks with the statehood seeking groups from the state. "This is a double-speak by the Centre. If the Centre has no plans to create any new states, then what is the objective of the tripartite talks it plans to hold with us on September 3. Under the circumstances, it is meaningless to hold talks ," AKRSU president Biswajit Ray said.

He added, "We suspect that this is a conspiracy by the Centre to restrain us from launching any agitation in support of our demand. We do not want to hold talks just for the sake of discussion. In the first round itself, we will figure out the Centre's vibes, and, if they are not positive, there would be no reason for us to continue with the dialogue," Ray said.

The Absu leadership held a meeting with other Bodo groups on the issue of tripartite talks on statehood. "Absu, in response to the invitation for talks, had withdrawn its 24-hour highway blockade, which was scheduled to be held on August 28. However, we will have to rethink our decision to suspend the 24-hour rail blockade on September 10 after the talks," Absu president Pramod Boro said.

The Tiruchi Railway Division has made various arrangements at Velankanni Railway Stations for the benefit of the devotees for the annual festival.A passenger reservation centre has been opened at Velankanni station to enable the devotees to book the tickets. It has set up an additional unreserved ticketing system counters apart from an enquiry counter. Passenger operated enquiry terminal has also been opened in this station along with the plasma screen boards displaying the arrival and departure timings of the trains on all platforms.The Engineering Department of the Southern Railway has set up 25 temporary toilets and 25 cubicle bath rooms near the railway station. Additional drinking water taps, adequate parking area have been provided. The upkeep of the railway station has been outsourced.A 24-hour medical booth has been opened at the station with the assistance of the state government. An ambulance manned by the volunteers of St. John Ambulance brigade will be in the service round-the-clock.The Railway Protection Force (RPF) and the Railway Protection Special Force (RPSF) will be posted in adequate numbers at the railway station and in its vicinity. Bomb disposal squad personnel will also be on duty.The Railways has announced operation of special train from different parts of the country including Bandra, Mumbai Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminus, Vasco da Gama, and Nagercoil.

For passengers such as G. Kishore, who arrived at Chennai Central station last week and tried to book a prepaid autorickshaw to his uncle’s house in K.K. Nagar, the unavailability of the facility has caused great inconvenience.However, there might be hope ahead as the Government Railway Police (GRP) has indicated that it might operate the facility once tariffs for autorickshaws are fixed. The prepaid auto counter was closed nearly one-and-a-half months ago, owing to work on the Metro Rail project.

Inexpensive ride

The facility began in 2007 and catered to an average of 1,000 passengers per day. The facility was very popular with commuters looking for relatively inexpensive rides.“My uncle had advised me to take a prepaid autorickshaw so that I would not have to pay a huge sum. But I finally had to take a regular auto anyway,” said Mr. Kishore.The prepaid autorickshaws charged Rs. 30 for two kilometres and Rs. 9 for every additional kilometre, said G. Arumugam, president of the prepaid autorickshaw drivers’ association.

Mr. Arumugam said that following the closure of a portion of the road for Metro Rail work, the traffic police prevented prepaid autorickshaws from waiting on the road.

“Around 50 vehicles are parked on the station premises but they charge the same rates as regular autorickshaws. We have requested railways officials and the traffic police to provide us with a separate counter from where operating the prepaid facility would be easy,” he said.

A GRP officer said they might soon begin operating the counter.

“The counter used to be run by the police before it was handed over the autorickshaw drivers’ association. We will operate it again and provide tokens to passengers and streamline the system,” said the officer.

BANGALORE: South-Western Railways will be constructing a world class railway station that can handle around five lakh passengers every day at Byappanahalli, shortly.The Railway Board recently approved the plan for the proposed railway station which will be the biggest in the zone. This station will have the capacity to handle around 100 pairs of trains.At present, Bangalore city railway station is the biggest railway station in the city and it can handle around 1.5 lakh passengers every day.The railway station will be designed to become a nodal point as it can be easily connected to all the major railway routes in the region. The concerned railway authorities and other state government agencies are making plans to provide easy access to the other modes of transport like BMTC and Metro for the passengers from the railway station. Provisions would be made to connect both Yeshwantpur and Bangalore City railway stations from the new railway station.At present both Yeshwantpur and Bangalore City railway stations are handling more passenger traffic than their capacity and it is not possible to introduce new trains from these stations.On an average, seven to eight new trains are introduced to the city every year and the new railway station is expected to meet the needs of the city for another 15 years.South-Western Railways Chief Administrative Officer S Vijay Kumar said, "For the first time in the history of the Indian Railways, this railway station will be constructed on publicprivate partnership basis. According to our estimates it will cost Rs 400 crore for laying the tracks and other railway works in the station. It may cost much more to provide passenger amenities and services.’’ Indian Railways is planning to develop 16 such railway stations in different parts of the country.

Upset over ‘mere assurances’ of the Railway Ministry in meeting their demands, the All India Railwaymen’s Federation (AIRF) has decided to go on indefinite strike and will decide the exact date and mode of agitation next month.Addressing presspersons here on Wednesday, AIRF general secretary Shiva Gopal Mishra said even unanimous agreements reached between the employees’ federation and the Railway Ministry were not being implemented. He said some of their demands were rectifying the anomalies in the Sixth Pay Commission, proper cadre restructuring, scrapping of the National Pension Scheme and the constitution of the Seventh Pay Commission.Mr. Mishra said the Railway Minister and Railway board officials had not taken any concrete steps towards meeting their demands.zHe said while senior railway officials held discussions withAIRF representatives, they did not show seriousness in implementation.

General council

Mr. Mishra said that the general council of the AIRF would be convened on September 13 at New Delhi and if the participants voted in favour of a general strike, the federation would launch an indefinite agitation.

He said that three national level employees’ unions had expressed their support to AIRF for a nationwide strike. “We will also approaching other unions to join hands with us to pressurise the government,” he said.

Mr. Mishra said they did not want to go ahead with the strike at a time when the country was facing economical crisis, but the Union government was forcing them to strike.

He said there were nearly 4.5 lakh railway employees under the new pension scheme and almost the same number of employees working on contract basis and facing exploitation.

To a query, Mr. Mishra said the federation was against any move to privatise the Railways. He said nearly 1.36 crore passengers who use the railways were workers and the Planning Commission never took them into account.

Local issues

South Western Railway Mazdoor Union zonal president W.A. Yadwad and general secretary A.M. D’Cruz said 10 years after the establishment of the South Western Railway Zone, local issues were not being addressed.

Treasurer V.E. Charkhani was present.

Repair work on the two churches on Prakasam Salai in Broadway that developed cracks due to Metro Rail work has begun, and is progressing well.The 152-year-old CSI Tamil Wesley Church and the 121-year-old Arcot Lutheran Church — classified as Grade 2A heritage structures by the Justice E. Padmanabhan Committee Report —were damaged last month, when a tunnel boring machine (TBM) drilled underneath the churches as part of underground Metro Rail work from Mannady to Madras High Court.Restoration work was begun for the Arcot church last week and for the CSI Tamil Wesley church on Saturday. While the Arcot Lutheran Church had suffered only a few minor cracks, the CSI Tamil Wesley Church had a few cracks that were 10 mm wide and a few others that were about 2-3 mm wide.“We started repair work on the churches last week and plan to complete it soon. The work is being carried out as per suggestions given by experts from IIT-Madras who had inspected the churches,” said an official of Chennai Metro Rail Limited.

Work on the two structures, which developed cracks due to Metro work, will be completed by this week, officials said

Central Organisation for Modernization of Workshop (COFMOW) headquartered in New Delhi is a centralized agency of the Indian Railways responsible for modernization of Railway Workshop/Production Units and for carrying out procurement of specialized machinery and plant and induction of Modern workshop technologies. The database already exists with COFMOW for M&P which is most regularly used by the Indian Railways. COFMOW is maintaining a detailed compendium containing updated technical specifications of all the Machinery and Plants being most regularly used in the various running Maintenance Sheds, Workshops, Production Units across the various Railways in India. COFMOW is also maintaining a vendor directory in which sources for machines regularly procured by COFMOW are included. COFMOW undertakes continuous updation of the data base by including sources based on the latest technologies available in the market. It also undertakes revision of the machine specifications to suit the specific requirements of Railways based on a continual interaction with manufactures and the Railway units. This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

Upset over ‘mere assurances’ of the Railway Ministry in meeting their demands, the All India Railwaymen’s Federation (AIRF) has decided to go on indefinite strike and will decide the exact date and mode of agitation next month.Addressing presspersons here on Wednesday, AIRF general secretary Shiva Gopal Mishra said even unanimous agreements reached between the employees’ federation and the Railway Ministry were not being implemented. He said some of their demands were rectifying the anomalies in the Sixth Pay Commission, proper cadre restructuring, scrapping of the National Pension Scheme and the constitution of the Seventh Pay Commission.Mr. Mishra said the Railway Minister and Railway board officials had not taken any concrete steps towards meeting their demands.zHe said while senior railway officials held discussions withAIRF representatives, they did not show seriousness in implementation.

General council

Mr. Mishra said that the general council of the AIRF would be convened on September 13 at New Delhi and if the participants voted in favour of a general strike, the federation would launch an indefinite agitation.

He said that three national level employees’ unions had expressed their support to AIRF for a nationwide strike. “We will also approaching other unions to join hands with us to pressurise the government,” he said.

Mr. Mishra said they did not want to go ahead with the strike at a time when the country was facing economical crisis, but the Union government was forcing them to strike.

He said there were nearly 4.5 lakh railway employees under the new pension scheme and almost the same number of employees working on contract basis and facing exploitation.

To a query, Mr. Mishra said the federation was against any move to privatise the Railways. He said nearly 1.36 crore passengers who use the railways were workers and the Planning Commission never took them into account.

Local issues

South Western Railway Mazdoor Union zonal president W.A. Yadwad and general secretary A.M. D’Cruz said 10 years after the establishment of the South Western Railway Zone, local issues were not being addressed.

Treasurer V.E. Charkhani was present.

Repair work on the two churches on Prakasam Salai in Broadway that developed cracks due to Metro Rail work has begun, and is progressing well.The 152-year-old CSI Tamil Wesley Church and the 121-year-old Arcot Lutheran Church — classified as Grade 2A heritage structures by the Justice E. Padmanabhan Committee Report —were damaged last month, when a tunnel boring machine (TBM) drilled underneath the churches as part of underground Metro Rail work from Mannady to Madras High Court.Restoration work was begun for the Arcot church last week and for the CSI Tamil Wesley church on Saturday. While the Arcot Lutheran Church had suffered only a few minor cracks, the CSI Tamil Wesley Church had a few cracks that were 10 mm wide and a few others that were about 2-3 mm wide.“We started repair work on the churches last week and plan to complete it soon. The work is being carried out as per suggestions given by experts from IIT-Madras who had inspected the churches,” said an official of Chennai Metro Rail Limited.

Work on the two structures, which developed cracks due to Metro work, will be completed by this week, officials said

Central Organisation for Modernization of Workshop (COFMOW) headquartered in New Delhi is a centralized agency of the Indian Railways responsible for modernization of Railway Workshop/Production Units and for carrying out procurement of specialized machinery and plant and induction of Modern workshop technologies. The database already exists with COFMOW for M&P which is most regularly used by the Indian Railways. COFMOW is maintaining a detailed compendium containing updated technical specifications of all the Machinery and Plants being most regularly used in the various running Maintenance Sheds, Workshops, Production Units across the various Railways in India. COFMOW is also maintaining a vendor directory in which sources for machines regularly procured by COFMOW are included. COFMOW undertakes continuous updation of the data base by including sources based on the latest technologies available in the market. It also undertakes revision of the machine specifications to suit the specific requirements of Railways based on a continual interaction with manufactures and the Railway units. This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.