Railway officials take a lead in carrying forward spirit of ‘Science Express’

IN A major departure from politicians flagging off major railway initiatives, Indian Railways’ senior most bureaucrat and chairman of Railway Board S S Khurana inaugurated the phase-III of the ‘Science Express’ on October 2, 2009 at Gandhinagar, which will finally travel to 55 locations, covering about 18,000 km in the next seven months. Significantly, it was originally flagged off from New Delhi on October 30, 2007 by Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh and Chancellor of Germany. The train has been showcased in 108 cities across India in two phases. The sparkling white fully air conditioned train with 16 coaches was custom made and specially fabricated at Rail Coach Factory Kapurthala. According to railway ministry release, over 35 lakh people, mostly students, have already enjoyed learning about cutting-edge research in science, explained through interesting audio visual exhibits and interactive tools. Along with Railway Board chairman Khurana, several other senior railway officials were present at Gandhi Nagar station on October 2 to take part on the inauguration of the third phase of the train. (See picture) Straight From Files a) Life is fun at Railway Staff College (August 2, 2009) b) Sudhir Kumar should help Lalu recalculating Rs 90,000 crore railway surplus (July 13, 2009) c) Mamata announces a slew of welfare measures for railway employees (July 4, 2009) d) Railway officials may need to carry files to Kolkata now (May 27, 2009)

Changing Tracks: Railway officials may need to carry files to Kolkata now

NO CHUGGING along anymore! India’s top railway officials may need to catch more flights to Kolkata in the coming days if Rail Bhawan bigwigs’ early morning journey to the city of joy on May 26 is any indication. In fact, carrying all official files, chairman of the Railway Board S S Khurana, Board’s secretary K B L Mittal along with several Board members and senior officials flew to Kolkata on Tuesday morning as new railway minister Kumari Mamata Banerjee decided to take over as the new railway minister in Kolkata, and not in Delhi. President of All India Trinamool Congress Mamata Banerjee, who was recently re-elected to 15th Lok Sabha on her 7th term from Kolkata (South) constituency in West Bengal, decided to assume the charge of her office at eastern railway headquarters in Kolkata as she needed to be with the people in West Bengal who were affected by a massive cyclone. But the railway babus in New Delhi have already begun to discuss that they would have to carry files to Kolkata many more times as Ms Banerjee would be more active in state politics rather than being stationed in New Delhi. It’s the time to change tracks…

Better ranks, better pay for 7 IAS The appointments committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of 1975 batch MP cadre IAS officer Jamini K Sharma, presently joint secretary in the ministry of textiles on compulsory wait in the ministry of textiles in the rank and pay of secretary, with effect from May 16, 2009, the ministry of personnel, public grievances & pensions has announced. Also, following appointments on in-situ elevation, with effect from May 17, 2009 have also been approved: a) Ms Rajwant Sandhu, IAS (Himachal Pradesh, 1975) as special secretary, ministry of Panchayati Raj b) N K Raghupathy, IAS (West Bengal, 1975) as chairman, staff selection commission in the rank and pay of Secretary c) A K Upadhyaya, IAS (Bihar, 1975) as special secretary, department of agriculture research and education, ministry of agriculture. d) B S Meena, IAS (Maharashtra, 1975) as Special Secretary and Financial Adviser, Ministry of Steel. e) Padmavir Singh, IAS (Madhya Pradesh, 1977) as joint director, LBSNAA, in the rank and pay of additional secretary f) S K Srivastava, IAS (Assam, 1977) as additional secretary, ministry of labour & employment