Mamata didi.....

In 15 months of Mamata tenure, 270 railway deaths
Mahendra Kumar Singh, TNN, Sep 21, 2010, 02.25am IST

NEW DELHI: At a time when railways is trying for an image makeover, Monday's train accident near Guna in Madhya Pradesh, which killed 23 and injured 30 passengers, is set to dent the track record of rail minister Mamata Banerjee, who has often been accused of being an " absentee minister".

According to preliminary findings, the driver of the goods trains ignored the signal and rammed into a stationary Indore-Gwalior Intercity Express at Badarwas station. The spurt in accidents will certainly turn the political heat on Mamata, who faces assembly polls in her home state, West Bengal, next year.

In over 15 months since Banerjee took over as minister, around 270 travellers have been killed in more than a dozen major train accidents, which have mostly been caused due to failure of railway employees that led to head-on or rear-on collisions. Trinamool Congress chief has been accused of being absent from Delhi, and focusing more on the Bengal elections.

The spate of accidents has also put a question mark on her promise to improve railways' safety record.

Typically, Mamata's approach to the accidents has been to hurriedly announce compensation for victims and their next of kin, institute inquiries and direct senior officials from Delhi to rush to the sites, giving enough ammunition to the Opposition to highlight her failure to prevent such incidents.

Besides, questions are being raised about various pending vital decisions and appointments to heighten rail safety. While railways is trying hard to fill around 89,000 safety-related vacancies, the arrest of the chairman of railway recruitment board ( RRB) Mumbai has not only embarrassed the state transporter but also derailed the entire process.

Railways is yet to come up with a timeline for installation of the anti-collision device, even though the decision was taken after the Saithia tragedy. CAG had also pointed out to railways about meeting its own target that was set under the corporate safety plan.

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Fright Earnings

Indian Railways generated revenue earnings of Rs 57594.61 crore from freight traffic during the financial year 2009-10, which ended on March 31, as compared to Rs 53137.60 crore in the previous year, registering an increase of 8.39 per cent.
An official press release said the Railways carried 887.99 million tonnes of freight traffic in the year to March 2010 as compared to 833.31 million tonnes carried during the previous financial year, an increase of 6.56 per cent.
It said the net tonne kilometres (NTKM) went up from 538226 million during April 2008-March 2009 to 584760 million during April 2009-March 2010, showing an increase of 8.65 per cent.
According to the release, out of the total earnings from freight traffic during 2009-10, Rs. 22366.69 crore came from transportation of 396.10 million tonnes of coal, followed by Rs. 8350.77 crore from 132.72 million tonnes of iron ore for exports, steel plants and for other domestic user, Rs. 5282.55 crore from 93.15 million tonnes of cement, and Rs. 3972.39 crore from 37.52 million tonnes of foodgrains.
The Railways also earning Rs. 3319.63 crore from transportation of 39.49 million tonnes of petroleum oil and lubricant (POL), Rs. 3336.19 crore from 30.93 million tonnes of pig iron and finished steel from steel plants and other points, Rs. 3174.51 crore from 43.58 million tonnes of fertilizers, Rs. 2772.43 crore from 34.36 million tonnes by container service, Rs. 883.46 crore from 11.58 million tonnes of raw material for steel plants except iron ore, and Rs. 4135.99 crore from 68.56 million tonnes of other goods, the release added.

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Greetings received for our BGM

Dear Comrade Sunish,

fraternal greetings and congratulations to our comrades in AILRSA, on the occasion of their 18th All-India Congress, at Nagpur. We wish all participants in your Congress many productive outcomes in your struggle for the rights of working men and women in India, who continue to suffer the effects of globalisation, and its related financial downturn.

In solidarity,

Gavin Richards.
Executive Branch member, CPSU/CSA,
Member International Committee, Unions WA.


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Dear Comrade Sunish,


Thank you Comrade. I hope you are well. Our solidarity greetings for a successful conference. Please extend my fraternal greetings to Comrade Pandhe.

Michėle Cohen
Department for Child Protection
Senior Practice Development Officer
Family Court of WA
150 Terrace Road
Perth WA 6000
Phone: (08) 9224 8253
Fax: (08) 9224 8244
Mobile: 0427 986 892



Dear Com.Suneesh,

Sub: GREETINGS TO 16TH CONFERENCE OF AILRSA AT NAGPUR


I am happy to learn that the sixteenth conference of AILRSA is taking
place on June 25th and 26th At Nagpur. These dates remind me of the
Internal Emergency declared in 1975. Of course, the Loco running staff
Agitation for eight hours work followed by the leadership change in
AIRF, formation of UCTU, the 1974 Railway Strike and its brutal
crushing by the Indira Gandhi Government precede the emergency. The
AILRSA and the railway workers movement will look back to those days
when it could aim at launching the most notable strikes of the period.

Although the pattern of administration has changed nothing much has
changed for the working people especially when it comes to the way the
labour is handled, The party which was in power them has come back
with a vigour that was not openly displaced in the recent days. They
say that they will put down labour hostility.

By hostility they mean that labour will have to be survile and not
challenging their dictacts. Unlike the period of emergency when
ultimately the civil society asserted their position and shown the
doors to the rulers who took the people for granted, presently day the
iron fist is in velvet gloves. The working people have to master the
technique of meeting the challenge of the effort by the ruling classes
to push them further down.

The railway workers movement and especially the Loco Running Staff
will have to be one of the leading segments in the fight to assert the
Rights of the Labour and help to usher in a new society.

I am sure you will be discussing the present situation and that your
conference will be successful to build not only the AILRS, but the
railway workers in general and to link them with the working class and
democratic movement in general.

With warm regards,

Yours fraternally,

VJK Nair


Com Sunish,
At a time of increaded globbal pressure against collective action for an equitable society and due share for the working hands AILRSA is having its 16th All India Conference in Nagpur scheduled for tomorrow and the day after. I am back from visiting west European contries just yesterday and saw persons are spending the night in the verandas of shops in busy and oppulant cities even in the developed countries and unless the resorces are equitably shared the human sufferings cannot be abandened. I am sure the conference will enliven the spirit of organised bargain for a better systen to live in. My best wishes for the success of the conference.
RV Achari

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