QBullet: 24 Mishaps Averted; 1.3 Lakh Security Staff Short In Railways

1. Before Indore-Patna Express Tragedy: In 5 yrs, Railways Saw 2 Dozen Near-Misses

About three months before the Indore-Patna Express derailed and killed 147 people on Sunday, a packed train from Varanasi hurtled down the same tracks towards another stationed just off Lucknow. In the falling darkness, a tragedy was about to unfold.

Indian Railways recorded at least 24 “averted collisions” in the five years to 31 August this year, Hindustan Times has found but with better safety standards, instances of near-misses are on the decline. Averted collision is a situation when two trains are only 400 metres away from each other on the same tracks. Only one near-miss was recorded this year.

Also Read: Kanpur Tragedy: Privatisation Won't Transform Rail Death Traps

In most cases, alert drivers helped avert collisions. For example, in December 2012, the driver of the Jharkhand Sampark Kranti Express jammed the brakes after he saw the tail lamps of the North East Express on the same tracks near Allahabad.

Between 2011 and August this year, the busy Northern Railway (NR) zone recorded the most number of near-misses.

“The NR operates more trains than any of the 16 railway zones in the country,” said the officer.

(Source: Hindustan Times)

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2. Demonetisation: Breather for Borrowers, Cash Rules Tweaked for Farmers

The government provided on Monday a breather for borrowers saddled with the cash crunch in the country, giving additional 60 days to repay home, car, farm and other loans worth up to Rs 1 crore.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) relaxed norms temporarily to provide added time beyond what is applicable for classifying a loan account as bad or sub-standard. Tens of thousands of small borrowers are struggling to get money because of restrictions on cash withdrawals.

Also Read: Blame Game in Demonetisation Can Wait, Writes Mani Shankkar Aiyar

Also, the government further eased cash withdrawal norms for small traders and farmers, who are among the hardest hit by a shock recall of high-value banknotes.

The finance ministry decided to allow farmers to purchase seeds with the scrapped 500-rupee notes from the centres, units or outlets belonging to the Central or state governments or public sector undertakings.

Another measure that may be adopted to help people beat the cash crunch is to pay all Central government employees a portion of their salary in notes next month, instead of putting the entire amount in their bank accounts, as is the norm.

(Source: Hindustan Times)

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3. Delhi Second Only to Kolkata When it Comes to Smelly Public Toilets: Survey

Kolkata has the smelliest public toilets followed by Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai, according to a new survey.

A survey found that 95% of Indian travellers demanded more public toilets and were dissatisfied with the hygiene levels of the existing ones. In fact, 70% travellers said that they have changed their intended holiday destination or mode of travel owing to discomfort with the level of cleanliness.

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Kolkata topped the cities with the highest smelly loo quotient with 43% votes, followed by Delhi with 32% votes. About 29% felt Chennai and Mumbai public toilets were smelly, while Hyderabad got 20% votes. Pune and Bengaluru turn out to have the least smelly toilets at 18% and 14%, respectively.

Travellers said that more toilets are required near bus stops, railway stations, religious places and government offices. While 54% of Indian travellers said that there is a need for more toilets in their respective cities and across tourism destinations and sightseeing spots in the country.

The railways got the second highest number of votes where we need more toilets (41%) while 31% felt religious places needed more loos.

(Source: The Times of India)

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4. If SAARC Fails, There's BIMSTEC: India Warns Pakistan

India sent out a clear message to Pakistan on Monday, warning it that South Asian nations would find other ways to cooperate on regional initiatives if it continues to block initiatives under the SAARC banner. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar also presented a snapshot of what a 'SAARC without Pakistan' could achieve.

Without naming Pakistan , Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar took a shot at Islamabad in an address to a think tank in New Delhi.

Also Read: Pakistan Seeks Bigger SAARC to Counter India's Influence

“Problem with SAARC is that some basic sort of standards of regional cooperation have to apply. If you say that I will be regional member but I will not allow regional trade, I will not allow regional connectivity, will not allow regional motor ways, I will not allow regional railways, then what is it about,” he said, referring to a connectivity project that Pakistan had blocked at the last SAARC Summit in Kathmandu.

He further indicated that if South Asian countries found their initiatives blocked under the SAARC banner, they would look to other regional groupings like the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation ( BIMSTEC) to meet these needs.

(Source: Times of India)

Also Read: DeQoded: India, Afghan, Bhutan & B'desh Will Skip SAARC? So What?

5. Rs 35,000 crore to Ease Rural Cash Crunch

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley directed commercial bank chiefs on Monday to focus their attention on rural India's cash crunch over the next 40 days, with a war chest of Rs 35,000 crore for providing credit to farmers by December.

The Centre also relaxed its demonetisation policy for high-value currency notes further by allowing farmers to buy seeds for the Rabi sowing season using old Rs 500 notes.

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Jaitley also asked banks to provide Rs 5,000 crore to the currency chests of district central co-operative banks (DCCBs) to ensure that the farming community faces no cash shortages for the Rabi crop.

Separately, the Reserve Bank of India eased the asset classification norms for loans of less than Rs 1 crore to allow small businesses, home loan borrowers and farmers 60 more days to pay instalments that fall due in November and December, to prevent them from being classified as non-performing assets owing to the ongoing cash crisis.

(Source: The Hindu)

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6. 1.3 Lakh Safety Staff Shortage Derails Railways

The number of people India loses to train accidents every year could be directly linked to the huge shortage of frontline employees in the "safety category" of the Indian Railways – 1.27 lakh such posts remain vacant as of 2016.

The safety employees, who include trackmen, pointmen, patrolmen, technicians and station masters among others, are directly responsible for the safe running of our trains. And, this crippling shortage of the key force on the ground, experts and unions opine, imperils the lives of passengers.

Also Read: Time to Rethink How the Indian Railways is Run?

This has also resulted in the overworking of existing workers, almost all of whom are toiling more than 15 hours a day – leaving enough room for mistakes that could result in grave incidents like the one on Sunday, which claimed more than 100 lives.

The railways, which has been more than enthusiastic in spending on 'designer uniforms' and other branding exercises, has exhibited nothing but apathy when it comes to filling up safety posts.

According to information accessed from the Ministry of Railways, the national carrier has an overall shortage of 2.17 lakh employees. Of this, 56% or 1.27 lakh are in the safety category.

(Source: The Times of India)

Also Read: Kanpur Tragedy: In Past 6 Years, Railway Mishaps Claimed 620 Lives

7. Taj Mansingh Hotel Can Run for Now: SC Stays Order Allowing Auction of Property

The Supreme Court restrained the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) from auctioning the iconic Taj Mansingh Hotel on Monday as it put on hold an order of the Delhi High Court that allowed it.

A bench headed by justice PC Ghose declined to stop the hotel, run by Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL), from accepting bookings beyond 31 March 2017.

Also Read: Delhi HC Rejects IHCL's Plea Against Auction of Taj Mansingh Hotel

“We can't disrupt a running hotel like this. Our order is passed keeping in mind the balance of convenience for both the parties,” the bench told Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, who on behalf of NDMC, said the hotel should not continue with bookings.

The civic agency and the company have locked in a legal tussle over the property, which the NDMC owns.

The property lease, which was given to IHCL for 33 years, ended in 2011. Thereafter, the company was given nine temporary extensions on various grounds, three of them in the last year itself.

(Source: Hindustan Times)

Also Read: Indian Hotel Moves Delhi HC, Against Taj Mansingh's Auction

8. India Ranks Among Lowest 4 Nations in Rape Cases: Maneka Gandhi

Concerns raised over cases of rape and violence against women prompted Union Minister Maneka Gandhi on Monday to come up with a response that took a gathering of women journalists by surprise.

The women and child development minister said India "ranked among the lowest four countries in the world" in terms of rape cases.

Also Read: Watch: This Is How Police Fail Rape Survivors in India

Speaking at a workshop for women journalists, Maneka recollected how she had held out data before a person in a “position of authority” in Sweden to show him how “India ranked among the lowest four countries in the world in terms of rape cases and Sweden was at the top”.

(Source: The Times of India)

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9. UP Opens ‘Autobahn' to Agra with An Air Show

The Lucknow-Agra six-lane expressway, the longest in the country at 302 km, was formally opened on Monday with a spectacular ‘touch-and-go' manoeuvre of take-offs and landings by six IAF fighter planes.

Three Mirage 2000s and three Sukhoi SU30 MKI of the IAF kept the audience spellbound with a brief touchdown on the expressway before taking off again.

The new road, upgradable to eight lanes, has a 3-km stretch designed for emergency take-offs and landings of fighter planes.

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh opened the access-controlled highway at Ganj Moradabad strip of Unnao, 50 km from here.

Along with the Lucknow Metro, the expressway is the star component of Yadav's infrastructure pitch, and a key aspect of the SP's 2017 Assembly election campaign.

(Source: The Hindu)

Also Read: India's Longest Expressway Connecting Agra-Lucknow Open For Public

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