The fifth meeting of Coalition for Safe Rail Travel (CSRT) was held at Moneylife Knowledge Centre, Moneylife Foundation in Dadar (W). There were around 17-20 activists from various passenger organisations present at the meeting. Here are the important discussions that took place…
AMBULANCES AT RAILWAY STATIONS
Sampath Shetty pointed out that the state government has given a green signal for emergency medical services (EMS) and awarded the contract to BVG India Ltd. The Maharashtra health department would launch the Rs1,000 crore EMS project from August this year that would make available 937 ambulances across the state. EMS would use 108 number for the services.
It was suggested by some members to write a letter to the state government and seek answers on issues like parking for ambulances near railway stations, hospitals etc.
CLOSED BOUNDARY WALLS
Gaurang Damani, updated the closed boundary walls on Central Railway. He said out of the 15 gaps between CST to Thane, the Central Railway has fixed four gaps on the main line. On Harbour line, Gaurang said, the railway authorities have expressed helplessness due to the laying of third line by BPT. This also means, until the third line is laid, there would be no boundary walls on harbour line. Gaurang informed that he had already filed an RTI with the BPT regarding the third rail line work.
ARRREST OF MAHESH KUMAR BY CBI
Samir Zaveri shares some details about the background of Mahesh Kumar (the railway board member arrested by CBI for giving bribe to minister Pawan Kumar Bansal’s nephew). Moneylife had written a story on the role of Bansal in promoting Mahesh Kumar.
Samir also shared the letters he sent to the prime minister, railway minister as well as members of the railway board for dismissing Mahesh Kumar for failing to detect several frauds while heading the vigilance team at western railway in Mumbai.
Besides Sampath Shetty and Gaurang Damani, other members like Sucheta Dalal, Sudhir Badami, Ashok Mehta (who is back in Mumbai after spending 30 years in Japan), Shakar Aiyer and Shirish Shanbhag also expressed their views on several topics.
The next meeting of the CSRT would be held on 1 June 2013.
