Lalu’s ‘roller over Varun’ remark: First information Report, warrant out

An arrest warrant was issued against RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav a day after he told a rally in Bihar’s Muslim dominated Kishanganj that had he been Home Minister, he would have “run a roller” over BJP’s Varun Gandhi for his hate speech against Muslims.

Kishanganj SP Ramnarain Singh told reporters: “We examined the CD of Lalu Prasad’s speech and found it provocative.” An FIR was lodged against him at the Town police station under sections of the IPC and Representation of the People Act. Singh said a warrant was in place to arrest the RJD chief. The offence is bailable.

Meanwhile, Lalu Prasad today claimed he meant “kanoon ka roller (roller of the law)” in his speech. LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan came to his defence, calling it a “political speech”. “Laluji meant he would have taken strict action against Varun. He said it in other words.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.indianexpress.com

Railways reaches higher, sets world record

At the onset, it was viewed as a move essentially aimed at ensuring the smooth flow of a multi-crore loan from Japan for the western section of its ambitious Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC). It has instead made Indian Railways set an unexpected world record, one which it is now planning to get certified by the Guinness Book of World Records.

The Railway Ministry’s decision to conduct field trials to ascertain whether double-stack container trains can run under Over Head Equipment (OHE) has made it the only railway in the world to run a train under a 7.45-metre-high contact wire.

The successful trial has already made Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav announce a Rs 10-lakh award for the electrical directorate officials. The trial has also led the ministry to seriously consider the move to electrify the 1,483-km-long Western DFC, which in turn, will ensure faster and smoother processing of the Japanese loan.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.indianexpress.com

Lalu Express popular, populist

Presenting his fifth consecutive Rail Budget, Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav today played to the gallery by unveiling some populist proposals - cuts in passenger fares to take on low-cost airlines, no hike in freight rates (see chart) - and, unlike last year, did not spend much time tom-tomming about the cash surplus. Instead, he chose to deliver a speech targeting the ordinary passenger, coming up with some ideas which promise to improve functioning of the Railways.

To set the house in order, Lalu, for the first time, announced that on-board cleaning on all Rajdhani, Shatabdi, superfast Mail and Express trains will be done by professional agencies which will provide trained personnel and equipment for the job. With this, Lalu managed to outsource train cleaning to private players.

FARES REDUCED AC-1 7% AC-II 4% Rider: Reduction would be halved during peak periods and in popular trains CASH SURPLUS BEFORE DIVIDEND in 2007-08 (Rs crore) 25,000 Reduced fares, increased volumes and profit

Given the deep penetration of mobile phones in the country, Lalu said his Ministry was exploring the option of issuing reserved and unreserved rail tickets through mobile phones. The Railways also plans to issue wait listed e-tickets.

He unveiled an interesting plan to absorb licensed porters in railways without creating new posts. The plan is to organise a one-time recruitment process wherein licensed porters would be appointed as gangmen or given Group D posts after a screening process. Since the Railways plan to promote a large number of gangmen to gatemen at manned level crossings, porters will fill up the gangmen posts that will fall vacant. The railway network has around 38,000 licensed porters, many of whom stand to gain from the scheme.

A 50 per cent concession in second class passenger fares for HIV/AIDS infected persons, travelling to nominated ART centres for treatment, is another move that will earn public goodwill for the Railways. Reaching out to the masses, Lalu announced a plan to provide platform shelters in smaller stations. As many as 748 `D` category stations and all `B` category



To read the full article, click here....

To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.indianexpress.com