Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday termed the Railways’ decision to link the movement of goods trains in the state with the passenger ones “totally irrational and illogical”.

The Railways has declined to resume goods train services in Punjab, saying it would either operate both freight and passenger trains or none.

Amarinder Singh said there is absolutely no logic in linking the movement of goods and passenger trains, which the Railways are doing as a “patent excuse” to continue with the suspension of freight services.

Passengers wanting to come to Punjab can easily travel by train to stations in nearby states, such as Ambala in Haryana and Chandigarh, from where they can go by roads to their destinations in Punjab in a few hours, he said in a statement.

This was not an option for freight movement, he said, adding if the people of Punjab, including its farmers, continue to be deprived of their essential needs in this manner, the situation can aggravate.

The train services in Punjab have been suspended since September 24, when farmers started their “rail roko” agitation against the centre’s farm laws.

Mr Singh said by defending the railway authorities’ decision, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been further “fuelling the fire of anger” among farmers, who have shown more concern for the citizens than the party was doing.

Rejecting outright the BJP state unit president Ashwani Sharma’s allegation of Punjab “arm-twisting” the Centre, the CM said it is the BJP leadership which is “inciting” the farmers with its “anti-Punjab” stance on the issue

 

Instead of questioning the Railways and supporting the state government in persuading the Centre to allow freight trains to ply, the BJP leadership continue to indulge in “dirty politics” at the cost of the Punjab people’s welfare and those of neighbouring states, he alleged.

“What’s worse is that the BJP is not even concerned about our soldiers in Ladakh and Kashmir who are waiting desperately for critical supplies before the onset of snow, which would block them off completely from the rest of the country for the winter months,” he added.

On Mr Sharma’s accusation that the state government has failed to dissuade protestors from blocking train services, the CM said it is his government which convinced farmers to ease their blockade to let essential supplies come in.

Even now, several of his Cabinet colleagues are engaged with farmers’ bodies to push for the complete lifting of the blockade to allow even passenger movement, he said, adding it is in his government’s interest to do so, as it is responsible for the people of the state.

The chief minister said the adamant stand of the Railways, which the BJP was vehemently endorsing, suggested lack of intent to resolve the issue on the goods trains.

“Why else will the Railways be taking refuge in one excuse after another to continue to suspend the services in Punjab, especially after the farmers cleared all tracks for freight movement and he personally guaranteed full safety for the goods trains, even though the Railway security rested with the GRP?” he asked.

The Railways will run 696 suburban services in West Bengal from November 11, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said on Sunday.

All such services had remained suspended since March due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The approval to operate these services was given by the Railways after consultations with the state government, officials said.

“Railways to run 696 suburban services in West Bengal from 11th November.”

“With adequate safety measures in place, this will greatly enhance passenger convenience, ease of movement and facilitate smooth travel for the people,” Goyal said in a tweet.

Train services to Punjab will only be restored after the state government assures safety and security of railway property and personnel and clears the tracks of all agitators, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.

He earlier met leaders of both the BJP and Congress in separate delegations, where they sought Mr Goyal’s intervention in resuming train services in the state saying the suspension was having an adverse effect on Punjab’s economy.

“The Railways is ready to begin operations in Punjab provided the state government gives us an assurance of safety of trains and clears tracks of protestors,” Mr Goyal said in a tweet.

Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh, in a letter handed over to Mr Goyal personally by MPs, assured safety and security of railway property and personnel.

“The state government stands fully committed towards ensuring the safety and security of railway properties in Punjab. It is pertinent to mention that there has been no incident of arson or damage to rail property during the current farmers” agitation,” Amarinder Singh said in his letter.

“We will deploy adequate police and security personnel along with RPF during day and night to ensure full protection to railway personnel and property,” the CM said, urging the Railway minister to restore rail traffic in Punjab.

Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav said Punjab government has given an assurance that all blockades on rail premises by protesters will be cleared by Friday.

Heated discussions marked a meeting between Congress Lok Sabha MPs from Punjab and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal over the restoration of train traffic in the state, with four of them staging a walkout over the minister’s remarks.

Sources said four of the eight Congress MPs — Gurpreet Singh Aujla, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Santokh Choudhary and Mohammed Sadique — walked out after tempers flared over Mr Goyal accusing the Congress government in Punjab of “provoking and aiding farmers” to protest against the Central government”s farm laws, that led to disruption of rail traffic.

The four Congress MPs who stayed back at the meeting were Preneet Kaur, Manish Tewari, Amar Singh and Jasbir Singh Gill.

The BJP delegation that met him included Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, party national general secretary Tarun Chug, spokesperson RP Singh and Punjab unit president Ashwani Sharma. In a letter to the railway minister, Mr Sharma alleged that the Congress government held Punjab “under siege” and was playing politics over the issue.

“We request immediate redressal by your august office to take a undertaking from the state government for security and protection to start goods and passenger trains with immediate effect. The common man is reeling under a great economic stress,” he said.

RRB NTPC exam will begin on December 15. Selection to the non-technical popular category (NTPC) posts in railways will be done by their recruitment boards (RRB). To appear in the exam candidates will be issued admit cards or hall tickets. RRB NTPC admit card can be expected soon. Candidates who have registered for the exam can download it from the official website of the RRBs using their application number and date of birth.

Selection to RRB NTPC posts will be through a series of exams and finally medical exam and verification of documents.

“To ascertain their eligibility as on the closing date for registration of the online application, candidates are required to produce all original documents with two sets of self-attested photocopies of all documents at the time of Document Verification,” RRBs have mentioned in the job notification.

Candidates who get shortlisted for the document verification process have to upload the scanned copies of the documents on the official website. “Further, these candidates should upload the scanned copies (in true color) of all the certificates as applicable prior to their document verification date through www.rrbdv.in portal,” the notification further adds.

RRBs have mentioned that the certificates that will be produced for verification should either be in Hindi or English. Where certificates are not in English or Hindi, self-attested translated version (In Hindi / English) should be produced, the boards have said.

In a bid to prevent crowding in local trains in Mumbai, railway authorities added 753 new special services from Monday, taking the total number of services on the suburban network to 2,773, officials said.

With this, the railway authorities have resumed 88 per cent of the total 3,141 suburban services which were being operated before the outbreak of COVID-19, they said.

During normal times before the lockdown, the Central Railway (CR) used to operate 1,772 services, while the Western Railway (WR) ran 1,367 services on the suburban network, they said.

The local trains, considered, as the lifeline of Mumbai, were resumed for the emergency and essential services staff in June this year.

To cater to the increasing crowd in suburban trains, the Central Railway has now added 552 more services on its routes, while the Western Railway has added 201 services, as per a joint press release issued by the CR and WR on Sunday.

With this, the special suburban services on the CR routes have increased to 1,572 from the earlier 1,020, while the WR services have gone up to 1,201 from 1,000.

Earlier, the Railways had decided to run 610 additional special suburban services from Sunday to avoid crowding in trains.

“The Railways is subsequently increasing suburban services keeping in view the social distancing norms and safety of public at large,” the release said.