Alcoholrelated issues shift focus to ‘overstressed’ train drivers

Are train drivers overstressed? The focus is on this question following revelations about a spike in alcohol-related issues among drivers. Altogether 281 loco pilots failed alcohol tests between 2012 and 2016.

Around 15% of drivers failed the test at the end of their journey, as reported by HT.

While work pressure can hardly justify drunk driving, such cases have raised a question mark on the neglect to critical HR issues by the state-owned transporter.

Staff crunch has remained a cause for worry. Against the sanctioned strength of 81,000 loco pilots, around 16,000 posts are vacant, which is around 19.2%, official records show.

Aparna Yadav, the younger daughter-in-law of Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, has said speculation that she may join the BJP are “totally baseless”.

The rumours were triggered by Aparna’s meetings with Uttar Pradesh’s new chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

Aparna and her husband Prateek Yadav, the younger son of Mulayam, first met Adityanath two days after he became the chief minister. The couple was then seen with the chief minister during his cow shelter visit in Lucknow.

“People just talk; all the more when a woman tries to do something worthwhile. Before I met Yogiji, Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) and Bhaiya (Akhilesh Yadav) attended his swearing-in and met him. I had met Yogiji even before. There’s nothing new about me meeting him,” Aparna said on Thursday.

The 26-year-old was the SP’S candidate from the Lucknow Cantonment constituency and lost the election to BJP’S Rita Bahuguna Joshi.

Aparna said she was caught in the crossfire during the Yadav family feud or else, she would have won.

“I often say my boat sank when the shore was in sight ... The wounds inflicted by our own are far deeper. But I fought well. I contested the seat from where Samajwadi Party had never won an election,” she said.

Aparna was the first member of the Yadav family who was not fielded from the family’s pocket borough and also the first one who was given a seat the party never won.

Aparna on Sunday held a ‘thanksgiving’ meeting in Lucknow Cantonment.

“I told the people that I was not the one who would blame EVMS (electronic voting machines) for my defeat. I lost because I got hardly any support from the party. Only one leader, Ashok Bajpai, was with me frequently. At booth level, there was no party support,” she said.

Shortly after the BJP’S massive victory in UP last month, BSP chief Mayawati had alleged that the EVMS were fudged.

The SP along with Congress and Aam Aadmi Party echoed the allegations.

According to experts, rising economic inequality has to be attributed to government policies that are city-centric and deprive the poor of their fundamental rights. It has been happening over the years.

“The new Union government is not an exception to this. The Modi government has launched schemes like Smart city, satellite cities and Amrut for the development of tier I and II cities in the states. The central government massively funds the schemes for the development of these cities. Even in Maharashtra, big-ticket projects such as Metro and Railways are being implemented in cities like Mumbai, Thane and Pune. The backward districts have hardly seen any new industries that can generate employment,” said Rupesh Keer, coordinator of Samarthan, an NGO that studies the state budget and its socio-political impact.

In his reply to a debate in the legislative assembly last week, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had said 65% revenue come from the urban sector and the development of the cities was imperative. He also said at the uneven equation of the dependency of 45% of the population on agriculture against the sector’s 10% contribution to the GSDP.

“The gap between the cities and the rural parts is widening significantly because of the failure of achieving the potential growth in the manufacturing and agricultural sector. Despite attempts to create a more skilled workforce, we have failed to generate job opportunities for the lower middle class. The service

A premature girl child, declared dead by a nurse at a government hospital in Rajasthan on Tuesday, “came back to life” an hour later at a crematorium where her parents took “the body” for last rites.

The parents rushed the infant back to the Government Mother and Child Hospital in Bundi district. The child has been admitted to the intensive care unit, where doctors said her chances of survival were bleak.

The parents demanded action against the nurse who declared the infant dead without consulting a doctor. The district administration later ordered a probe.

According to hospital records, two nurses — Santo Mahawar and Bawari Bai — were on duty when the indient took place. Hospital authorities said the probe will reveal who was responsible for the negligence. sector has driven growth in cities leading to the impressive rise in income in the cities. I think economic inequality will pose a major problem in the future in the country and the recent outcry in the Maratha community was an example of the it,” said Milind Murugkar, a expert on rural development.

They, along with the Sena, disrupted budget session proceedings in the state legislature.

Taking an aggressive stand, the Congress and the NCP then tried to disrupt presentation of the state budget for the next fiscal year.

While addressing a rally, NCP president Sharad Pawar said he would intensify the movement by organising more rallies and accused the Fadnavis government of not keeping its waiver promise made in the run up to the state Assembly polls in 2014.

He said the Centre is writing off loans of industrialists as NPA (non-performance asset), but doesn't want to do the same for farmers. “Around 20 public sector banks haven't recovered bad debt of Rs2,80,494 crore from industrialists then why can’t loans of Rs30,000-40,000 crore be waived off,” he asked.

While Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said the state government should follow the footsteps of the UP government and waive off loans of the farmers. “Farmers in the state are committing suicides thus farm loan waiver is the need of the hour. We want their 7/11 extract free from

Wisps of cloud and traces of rain raised hopes on Tuesday of relief from the scorching dry heat in the Capital, where the mercury is threatening to breach the intimidating 40° Celsius this early part of April.

The forecast for Wednesday was soothing, as meteorological department predicted the possibility of a thunderstorm or dust storm because of a western disturbance.

“The thunderstorms may trigger rain in a few places,” said a senior scientist with the regional weather forecasting centre.

The storms — even without the expected precipitation — are likely to keep the heat down over the next three days and provide temporary relief to the city.

The mercury was hovering around 39 degrees Celsius till Monday. It is likely to take a downward slide to around 32 degrees Celsius by Saturday.

Nights would get cooler with the minimum temperature likely to drop to around 19 debt,” Thackeray said.

Chief minister has repeatedly said the move is financially unviable for the government as it will bring a burden of Rs 30,500 crore on the state exchequer. The state government has also requested the Centre to provide financial help to get this done.

But the state-run helicopter could not take off from the airport in Guwahati due to torrential rain.

A convoy of SUVS then brought the Dalai Lama and his entourage to Bomdila, about 320km from Guwahati. The Buddhist-dominated Bomdila, the headquarters of West Kameng district, is from where the Chinese army began retreating during the 1962 war.

“The weather forced us to take the road. Our tour of Arunachal Pradesh is on course but with a change in schedule,” Tenzin Takhla, the private secretary to the Dalai Lama, told HT.

The Dalai Lama’s itinerary, a government spokesperson said, has been reversed.

He will now be reaching Tawang, about 180km from Bomdila, on April 8 for a three-day stay.

The spiritual leader was earlier scheduled to depart from Tawang on April 9 and visit other places, some of which, including state capital Itanagar are likely to be struck off the itinerary.

The rain, however, followed the Dalai Lama when he arrived at Bomdila’s Lower Gompa after an almost nine-hour drive. Almost everyone who matters in Arunachal Pradesh – from ministers and local MLAS to the chief secretary and director general of police – had queued up in the rain to greet him.

“This is a great day for us, and we are fortunate His Holiness accepted our invitation,” Khandu said. He had gone to Dharamshala last year to invite the Dalai Lama.

One of his aides said the Dalai Lama’s visit was purely spiritual without any geo-political message for anyone.

The Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, particularly the Tawang region, is his second in eight years.

His last visit was in 2009, exactly 50 years after he had entered India while fleeing to India from Lhasa,tibet. His then visit had also evoked strong degrees Celsius.

“The thunderstorm would force cool winds from higher altitudes to blow in, thereby lowering the temperature drastically,” the scientist said.

Quite a number of places such as the Ridge area, Lodhi Road, KG Marg, Safdarjung and Palam received traces of rain on Tuesday after the city woke up to hazy and windy morning.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the haze was because of a dust storm.

Winds blowing at 12kmph kicked up the dust. The wind speed increased because of a western disturbance — a storm that brews in the Mediterranean Sea and brings rain-bearing clouds to New Delhi.

The dust, however, had little impact on the city’s notorious air quality. The heat will be back from Sunday. The weather office said the city is likely to experience above-normal temperatures on most days in April to June.

China claims claims about 90,000 square kilometres in Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing often refers to as “Southern Tibet”.

Several rounds of talks have failed to make substantial progress on the dispute, although there have been relatively few confrontations in recent years.

Last month, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that Beijing has expressed its concerns to New Delhi on numerous occasions and urged India to avoid offering a place for the Dalai Lama to carry out anti-china separatist activities.

The Trump administration has let India know, according to officials in New Delhi who spoke on condition of anonymity, that the president has no intention of insinuating himself or the US into the conflict as a mediator or a peacemaker.

India first raised this issue with the administration in January after Trump, then presidentelect, was seen to be signalling a desire to play a role in resolving India-pakistan issues during a phone call with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

“I am ready and willing to play any role that you want me to play to address and find solutions to the outstanding problems,” Trump had said, according to a transcript released by Islamabad. “It will be an honor and I will personally do it.”

New Delhi, which had been engaging the new administration in a series of meetings, was alarmed and checked. “We were told by those close to the administration the president was not interested,” said an official on background.

Indians have since then let the Trump administration know at other levels and in other meetings about their position on third party mediation. And they have had no reason to re-visit the issue until now.

Meanwhile, Nikki Haley told reporters that the US was determined to continue the press the case for sanctioning and designating terrorists at the UN.

Though she did not take names, she was clearly referring to the move to designate Jaish-emohammad founder Masood Azhar, which the US tried with other UK and France in January

It’s a coincidence that the cabi net took nine decisions on the occasion of Ram Navami, which marks the end of the nine-day Navratra festival, he said.

Bundelkhand Kisan Union national president FK Dharma welcomed the loan weaver and said this was the first step towards easing out a major crisis faced by farmers.

But Samajwadi Party presi dent and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav was not impressed. A promise of complete loan waiver was made to the farmers, he said. “Millions o farmers were feeling cheated with the ceiling of Rs 1 lakh.”

Earlier in the day, the Con gress hoped the BJP governmen will waive off loans of farmers to the tune of Rs 92,000 crore.

Party leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said: “The BJP has waived off loans of Rs 140,000 crore of big industrial houses and industrialists. Will it waive of loans of Rs 92,000 crore of UP farmers?”

Other than the loan relief, the government will buy 80 lakh met ric tonnes of wheat from the farm ers with the minimum sale price (MSP) of Rs 1,625 a quintal. It wil give an additional Rs 10 a quinta to farmers cover transport and loading expenses.

A three-member committee o ministers will find ways to ensure potato growers got remunerative prices for their produce.

The government also decided to go ahead with its crackdown on the state’s illegal slaughter houses, another poll promise o the BJP that won a landslide vic tory in the assembly elections The Yogi government took charge a fortnight ago.

The action against unautho rised abattoirs would strictly fol low Supreme Court and Nationa Green Tribunal directives and guidelines. The cabinet blamed rival political parties of spread ing canard against the govern ment’s move to set up “anti-ro meo” police squads to check growing instances of harassment of women in public places.

Allegations mounted tha Uttar Pradesh has been turned into a nanny state by the BJP gov ernment, as reports emerged that these anti-romeo teams were harassing men arbitrarily — even brothers dropping sisters at exam halls or men giving a lift to their woman colleagues.

The cabinet decided tha policemen wouldn’t be spared i complaints of harassment were