Prabhu offers to quit, rail board gets new chairman
NEWDELHI: The railways stared at a shake-up as its board chairman resigned and minister Suresh Prabhu offered to quit on Wednesday after back-to-back train derailments hit India’ s largest public transporter.
Air India chairman and managing director Ashwani Lohani was appointed chairman of the Railway Board after incumbent AK Mittal resigned, citing personal reasons.
Lohani is an Indian Railway Service officer of the 1980 batch. He has four engineering degrees.
The petroleum and natural gas ministry’s financial adviser, Raj iv Bans al, was named the new head of the ailing national airline. He is a 1988- batch I AS officer from the Nagaland cadre.
Prabhu met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and offered to re sign, but there is no official confirmation if it was accepted. It is likely that Modi will ask him to continue until the next reshuffle of the Union cabinet. “I met the Hon’ b le Prime Minister @narendramodi taking full moral responsibility,” Prabhu tweeted.
The PM asked him to wait, he said and added in another tweet that he was “deeply pained” by the disasters.
More than 70 people were injured as 10 coaches of the Kaifi-yat Express bound for New Delhi jumped tracks after colliding with a dumper truck in UP.