K'taka to appoint Ombudsman on MGREGA

Gulbarga|
To ensure effective implementation of the Mahathma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGREGA), intended to provide employment to rural masses, the Karnataka Govenrment propose to appoint Ombudsman, Rural Development and Panchayath Raj minister Jagadish Shettar said yesterday. Speaking at a function here, the minister said the State Government had shortlisted retired judges to man the post in 18 districts which would be appointed soon. The move to appoint Ombudsman would help not only to check the alleged irregularaties but also effective implementation of the scheme, he added. He said the Gram Panchayath Secretaries and the Taluk Panchayath Executive Officers, who were the key officials in the implementation of the scheme would be brought under the juridisction of the Ombudman.

Sena MLA Kshirsagar to sit on indefinite fast outside Assembly

Kolhapur|
Shiv Sena MLA Rajesh Kshirsagar today declared that he will undertake an indefinite fast in front of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly during the Monsoon session from July 13 to draw the state government's attention to the inadequate drinking water supply to the Kolhapur city. Addressing the media here, Mr Kshirsagar said the issue of drinking water to the city has not been resolved for last many years due to government apathy. Despite enough water in the district, people were deprived of uninterrupted supply of clean drinking water. Therefore, he has decided to undertake indefinite hunger strike agitation in front of the state Assembly. In 1997, some people had filed a Public Interest Litigation in the High Court demanding supply of adequate, pollution-free drinking water through direct pipeline from Kalammawadi dam. The High Court +had pulled up Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Pollution Control Board for their failure to supply clean drinking water to the people in Kolhapur. The Court had also directed then KMC commissioner to file its affidavit till 2003 about provision of pollution-free water, but till date, the city has not been getting clean drinking water, which tantamounts to insult of Court, he said. Mr Kshirsagar said in this connection, he will soon file a petition to initiate action against KMC and PCB for contempt of Court. He said the Sena-BJP MLAs from western Maharashtra will accompany him during the fast agitation and added he will also demand that city's historic Jay Prabha studio should not be demolished.

Ashokapuram Railway Workshop to be modernised

Mysore|The 86-year-old Ashokapuram Railway Workshop is in for a major overhaul and modernisation as a master plan entailing an investment of Rs 62 crore is to be submitted to the Railway Board for its approval. Railway workshop sources told today that once the railway board approved the plan, it would be the first major overhauling and modernisation programme to be implemented which would help meet the requirements of the Indian Railways for another 50 years.The master plan proposes to have state-of-the-art machinery and equipment to dispense with certain obsolete and manual operations still deployed in the workshop. New infrastructure by way of new sheds, realignment of the existing sheds, new facility for overhead cranes to lift the bogies and streamlining the workshop process so as to introduce an inflow system, apart from modern painting equipment, has been envisaged in the master plan.

INAUGURATION OF NEW MULTI DISCIPLINARY TRAINING CENTRE

HUBLI.The newly constructed Multi Disciplinary Training Centre building of South Western Railway was commissioned by Shri KULDEEP CHATURVEDI, General Manager, South Western Railway to day (09-07-2010) at Dharwad, after performing puja by unveiling the plaque, in the presence of Shri Adesh Sharma, Divisional Railway Manager, Hubli Division, Shri D.K. Sheroff, Chief Mechanical Engineer, Shri V.K. Tempe, Chief Electrical Engineer, Shri S. Lakshminarayana, Chief Signal & Telecom. Engineer, Shri S.C. Sinha, Chief Security Commissioner, SWR, Shri V.K. Agarwal, Chief Track Engineer, SWR, Shri Sunil Kumar Jyoti, Deputy Chief Personnel Officer, SWR and Shri Vipin Kumar, Senior Divisional Engineer(Co-ordination),Hubli Division. This newly constructed Multi Disciplinary Training Centre is also called as Divisional Integrated Training School, situated in Dharwad built in the area of around 23 acres of railway land. This has been built at a cost of around Rs.3 Crs, in two floors (Ground and First Floor) with a beautiful lawns and a spacious circulating area.

This Training Centre gives training in induction and refresher courses for Group C & D employees (technical in nature) for the Engineering, Signal & Telecommunication, Mechanical(Carriage & Wagon), Traffic & Commercial and Electrical Branches. This new Training Centre has total 05 faculty rooms in both Ground & First Floor, 07 Class Rooms, a big Confernce Hall, Principal Room, one Staff Room and one Office Room, Model Room (Carriage & Wagon), one Lecture Hall, a Library, Telephone Exchange Room. In another building, a big dining-cum-kitchen hall, a big comfortable Hostel with 12 Rooms (in each room 4-bed accommodation) with well-furnished and adequate ventilation, sufficient electrical fittings in each room and entire premises of the building and potable drinking water facilities have been provided by the Railway. This building was constructed by Shri K. Ramana Murthy, Managing Director of Ms/. Essvy Constructions, Hubli under the supervision of Shri Ravikant, Divisional Engineer(Central), Hubli Division, within 12 months period.

The Model Room of Carriage & Wagon has various model equipments, viz., Wheel defects and application of Gauges, guidelines for interpretations of wheel defects, working model of passenger emergency Alarm system, exploded model of bogie mounted brake cylinder and working model of twin-pipe air brake system. Shri Kuldeep Chaturvedi, General Manager, SWR accompanied by all the Officers inspected all the class rooms, model room, hostel and lecture halls minutely. Shri Chaturvedi congratulated the team of engineering officials for having constructed such a new beautiful Training Centre building in a spacious area for the Group C & D
Shri S.K. Gupta, Secretary to General Manager, SWR, Shri Sunil Kumar Jyoti, Deputy Chief Personnel Officer, SWR, Shri Vipin Kumar, Senior Divisional Engineer(Co-ordination), Shri Ravi Kant, Divisional Engineer(Central), Shri Timothy T. Gonmei, Sr. Divisional Personnel Officer, Shri Umesh Kumar, Sr.Divisional Mechanical Engineer(C&W), Shri Indrajit Dihana, Sr. Divisional Mechanical Engineer(Power), Shri Vinayak V Nayak, Sr. Divisional Commercial Manager, Shri Anil Kumar Patke, Sr.Divisional Opeations Manager, Smt. Amrita Darpan Jain, Sr. Divisional Finance Manager, Smt. Smita Srivastava, Sr. Divisional Electrical Engineer, Shri Bholendra Singh, Sr. Divisional Signal & Telecom. Engineer, Shri A.N. Mutalik, Divisional Safety Officer, Shri Ghanshyam Verma, Divisional Signal & Telcom. Engineer,Shri Shanvi, Assistant Divisional Mechanical Engineer, Shri R. Sundar Raj, Assistant Security Commissioner and other officials were also present on the occasion.