Women passengers allowed to travel during non-peak hours from Nov 23: Southern Railway
Chennai: Southern Railway on Saturday said women passengers other than essential services staff would be allowed to travel in suburban train services during non-peak hours with effect from November 23.
Southern Railway, in a press release, said, it has scaled up the number of suburban services in Chennai to 244 trains per day which were 40 percent to the pre-COVID/-19 levels aimed at serving the essential services staff of both government and other organizations.
Women passengers will now be allowed to travel in Chennai Suburban trains during non-peak hours from Monday to Saturday and to travel throughout the day on Sundays, a press release said.
They will be allowed to travel before 7 am and after 1030 am till 4.30 pm and after 7.30 pm till 12 am Monday-Saturday.
They can use their season tickets for traveling or on the purchase of single journey tickets. Children up to the age of 12 are also allowed to travel with them during non-peak hours.
Southern Railway has appealed to the passengers to follow COVID-19 protocols including wearing masks, maintaining social distancing, and cooperating with railway employees for checking valid documents during their travel.
With effect from September 7, Southern Railway had announced the resumption of train services on select routes in Tamil Nadu in line with the state government lifting the COVID-19 lockdown induced suspension.
In October, Southern Railway had resumed suburban train services only for essential staff to commute to and from work.
Chief Minister K Palaniswami had written to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal requesting him to grant permission to resume full-fledged operations of the suburban trains in Chennai in October.
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Surat LS candidate Nilesh Kumbhani whose nomination form was rejected suspended from Congress
Ahmedabad, Apr 25: The Gujarat Congress on Friday suspended from the party for six years its Surat Lok Sabha candidate Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form was rejected over discrepancies leading to the BJP's Mukesh Dalal getting elected unopposed.
A statement from the Congress said the party's disciplinary committee decided to suspend Kumbhani after thorough discussion, adding it had come to the conclusion that the nomination form was rejected due to gross negligence on his part or "in connivance with the BJP".
"To be fair to you we have given time to you to explain your case but instead of coming before the party disciplinary committee you have gone incommunicado. After your form was rejected by the authorities, BJP went ahead and got form of other eight candidates withdrawn. This has deprived people of Surat their voting rights," the Congress disciplinary committee headed by Balu Patel said.
"People of Surat and party workers have become very angry due to your action and are expressing their anger in different ways. The Congress party has decided to suspend you for six years from the party," the press note said.
Kumbhani's nomination form was rejected on April 21 after his three proposers submitted affidavits to the district returning officer claiming the signatures on the document was not theirs.
The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' substitute candidate from Surat, was also invalidated on the same grounds.
In his order, Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi said the three nomination forms submitted by Kumbhani and Padsala were rejected after prima facie discrepancy was found in the signatures of the proposers and they did not appear to be genuine.
Kumbhani, a former corporator from Surat, had unsuccessfully fought the 2022 Assembly polls from Kamrej there.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha constituency on April 22 after all other nominees, including one from BSP, withdrew from the fray one by one on the last day of withdrawing papers.
