Lakshman Singh appointed as K-RIDE MD
Bengaluru (PTI): The Centre on Thursday approved the deputation of Lakshman Singh, Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE), to the post of Managing Director of Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Ltd (K-RIDE).
K-RIDE is presently undertaking the Bengaluru Suburban Railway Project (BSRP) – the work that is going on at a snail’s pace in the absence of a technocrat to head the organisation, sources said.
"The appointment comes after several years of demand for a technocrat for the post since the job involves high technical expertise," a source said.
Currently serving as Chief General Manager (Civil) at Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL), Singh will assume the new role on deputation terms, retaining his parent pay plus deputation allowance.
The appointment is for a period of three years starting from the date Singh takes charge or until further orders, whichever comes first, the order said.
His total deputation tenure will be calculated from his initial deputation date with BMRCL, it said.
The Railway Ministry has requested BMRCL to relieve Singh for this assignment and to inform the date of his relief.
According to sources, Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya pursued the matter with the Railway Board that an expert in the domain is appointed as the MD.
While laying the foundation stone for the BSRP on June 20, 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that the project would be completed in 40 months. The project should have been completed by the end of December, but it has not made any headway till now.
Karnataka Infrastructure Development Minister M B Patil had also set a deadline of December 2027.
"Given the pace of work, it is highly unlikely that it will ever be possible. Now that we have a technocrat as MD, we feel that the work would gain momentum," a government officer said.
The project has seen many hiccups. An IAS officer Vasanthi Amar B V, who served as Special Deputy Commissioner at K-RIDE, was raided by the Karnataka Lokayukta on July 23. She was responsible for the land acquisition for BSRP.
Due to inordinate delay in the land acquisition, the project had come to a grinding halt.
The project hit another roadblock when the Indian multinational conglomerate Larsen and Toubro (L&T) terminated two contracts for Corridor-2 and Corridor-4 of the BSRP on July 31.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
