A Railway Protection Force (RPF) team of Northern Railway arrested three people on-board Telangana Express with a cache of silver worth Rs. 75 lakh.

The three were travelling in a coach meant for disabled people, with seven packages containing the silver.

The officials seized 262 kg of silver from them.

“During checking at Ballabgarh Railway Station on December 10, at 8:20 am, the team of RPF outpost Ballabgarh apprehended three persons in disabled coach. During interrogation, they disclosed that they are carrying white raw metal and white metal ornaments for which they did not present any documents. Besides, they were travelling ticketless,” a statement from the railway ministry said.

The three were booked under Section 155B of the Railways Act and a case has been registered at RPF outpost in Ballabgarh.

Shyam Sundar Besra, Chief Inspector of Ticket, working in Asansol Division of Eastern Railway of Indian Railways has been conferred the coveted Sahitya Akademi Award. Mr Besra has been awarded for his novel “Marom” in the Santhali language.

“Marom” is primarily based upon natural, social, economic and political conditions of Santhal Pargana, one of the divisions or commissionaries of Jharkhand headquartered at Dumka.

The novel highlights the situation emerged after the industrial development of the Santhal area after Independence, mainly, Masanjore Dam at Dumka and Railway locomotive workshop at Chittaranjan.

Two of his works, ‘Dullar khatir‘ and ‘Damin Riya (udas) Kahani Ko‘ are part of syllabus for Post Graduation courses in Sidhu Kanhu University, Jharkhand.

Mr Besra writes in the name of GB Rarek in Santhali language and as Santhal praganvi in Hindi.

He had completed his MA (Hindi Literature) and MA in Santhali in 1987.

He has been conferred many awards at the state level and also Dr Ambedkar Fellowship by Bhartiya Dalit Sahitya Academy in the year 1992.

Mr Besra was felicitated for the rare honour by DRM Asansol.

Sahitya Akademi announced its annual Awards in 24 languages on December 5, 2018. Seven books of poetry, six novels, six short stories, three literary criticism and two essays have won the Sahitya Akademi Awards 2018.

The Awards were recommended by distinguished Jury members representing 24 Indian languages and approved by the Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi which met on December 5, 2018 under the Chairmanship of Dr Chandrashekhar Kambar, President, Sahitya Akademi.

Almost a month after the official announcement, Railway Recruitment Boards or the RRBs have assured candidates that the revised results for Assistant Loco Pilot and Technician exam will be released by December 20. Further, the second exam has been postponed by a month. ‘RRB ALP recruitment 2018’ as it is popularly searched for, was notified on February 3, 2018. 36 lakh candidates had appeared for the first stage exam which was held in phases from August 9 to September 4.

The second test, which will also be computer-based, will be held on 21, 22 and 23 January.

The second exam will be a lengthy one and will assess the trade or professional knowledge of the candidate as well. The exam will comprise two sections.

While the first section will be much similar to the first stage exam, except a basic science and engineering part, the second section will have questions from the trade syllabus prescribed by Director General of Employment & Training (DGET).

In order to qualify the first section candidates have to score atleast 40% marks (30% for OBC and SC categories, 25% for ST categories). The pass mark for the second section, which will have trade-based questions, is 35%.

Merit list will be decided on the marks obtained in the first section, only for those candidates who have qualified the second section.

A group of unidentified men allegedly snatched and fled with an AK-47 rifle of a Railway Protection Force (RPF) jawan in Ujjain district of Madhya Pradesh, a senior police officer said Thursday.

Two RPF personnel were injured in the incident which took place near Badnagar, said Ujjain Superintendent of Police (SP) Sachin Atulkar.

RPF jawans on patrol duty along the railway track in Sundarbad area spotted about ten persons loitering around and asked them to stop, the SP said.

“The miscreants pelted stones at them, in which two jawans sustained minor injuries. The AK-47 rifle of one of them fell down. It had 20 rounds loaded,” police said.