raiway officials meet

Faced with increasing criticism about lack of passenger amenities, Northern Railways has asked senior officials to conduct surprise checks and periodic inspections of stations and trains. "The aim is to bring about a visible change in about a month's time", officials said. Delhi Division, which falls under the zone, has deputed about 154 gazetted officers to carry out the checks and report back to the departments concerned. "The officers include 33 deputy heads of departments," a senior official of the division said. He said that even the DRM would be involved in the exercise and carry out surprise inspections to ensure that the directives issued by the officers are actually being carried out. He will be given a copy of the inspection report by the inspecting officials. The General Manager of Northern Railways recently held a video conference with DRMs under the zone and asked them to ensure that passenger amenities are spruced up. Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has put passenger amenities on top of her agenda and made a series of policy announcements in this regard in her budget speech.MORE PTI SGI Delhi Division has also instructed officers to pick a train of their choice on random basis and inspect all details onboard. "We want to ensure that every station and train, both big and small is inspected so that there is no discrimination," the official said. Delhi Division has three stations which fall in category A1, about 14 in category A, 11 in category B, 41 in category D and about 85 in category E. The anti-fraud squad of Northern Railway had also recently stepped up its drive against illegal hawkers at platforms and travel agents
. The move, officials said, has yielded good results with scores of them