TTE who beat up commuter at Kurla finally behind bars. Singh surrendered earlier this week after rote to the di the Kurla GRP wrote to the divisional railway manager (Central Railway), apprising him of the incident. Singh was produced before a railway court and released on bail. The CR has suspended him following the incident.

May 10 2015 : The Times of India (Mumbai)

TTE who beat up commuter at Kurla finally behind bars

Mumbai: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





A travelling ticket examiner (TTE), Anand Singh, has Singh, has been arrested for assaulting a ticketless traveller.Singh surrendered earlier this week after rote to the di the Kurla GRP wrote to the divisional railway manager (Central Railway), apprising him of the incident. Singh was produced before a railway court and released on bail. The CR has suspended him following the incident.
The incident took place on April 22 when hotel employee Navroz Charania (36) was travelling from Kanjurmarg to Kurla. Singh asked him for ticket at Kurla station around 9.30am. When Charania said he did not have a ticket, Singh took him to the office of the chief ticket inspector and verbally abused him. Charania then asked Singh to mind his language and also offered to pay fine for travelling without a ticket. But Singh allegedly lost his cool and punched Charania on his face. He also took away Charania's cellphone and kicked him.
Charania was then made to wait at the CTI's office for half an hour. Later, other TTEs came to the office, following which Singh left. Charania's cellphone was returned to him by Singh's colleagues. The injured victim then went to the nearby Kurla GRP outpost and lodged a case against Singh. Charania was sent to Bhabha Hospital for a medical examination.
“Singh has been involved in a case of extortion in the past as well,“ said Vijay Dhopavkar, senior inspector, Kur la GRP.

CCTVs planned after Kurla TTE assaults commuter. Central Railway will install glass doors and windows at the chief ticket inspector's office so that the goings-on within are clearly visible, after a ticketless commuter was assaulted by a travelling ticket examiner (TTE) at Kurla station.

Apr 25 2015 : The Times of India (Mumbai)

CCTVs planned after Kurla TTE assaults commuter

Manthan K Mehta & Nitasha Natu

Mumbai: TNN





Central Railway will install glass doors and windows at the chief ticket inspector's office so that the goings-on within are clearly visible, after a ticketless commuter was assaulted by a travelling ticket examiner (TTE) at Kurla station.Navroz Charania (36), a hotel employee, was travelling from Kanjurmarg to Kurla when the TTE, Anand Singh, caught him on Wednesday . He took away Charania's cell phone and allegedly hit him on his face inside the chief ticket inspector's (CTI) office.The Kurla GRP has registered a case against Singh but has made no arrest yet.
CR general manager S K Sood said Singh had been suspended.
“Apart from replacing the doors and windows with transparent ones, we will get CCTVs installed. The footage can be used as evidence if commuters complain of misbehaviour by ticket-checking staff.“
“Commuters caught ticketless are taken to the CTI's office on the pretext of completing paper work. They are often made to sit for hours if they do not have the cash to pay the penalty . The goings-on inside the CTI's office are never known to anyone outside. Certain TTEs take away commuters' cell phones, which is illegal,“ said an activist.
Charania told TOI that Singh was involved in assaulting another commuter in the past few weeks but the commuter did not lodge a police complaint. “I was in a hurry and forgot to buy a ticket.Around 9.30am, I got off on platform 4 at Kurla, when the TTE told me to stop. He took me to the CTI's office and started abusing me as I did not have a ticket. I told him I was willing to pay the fine and he should mind his tongue. He lost his cool and punched me on my face. He kicked me and took away my phone,“ said Charania. Charania was made to wait at the office for half an hour. “A few other TTEs entered the office. Singh had picked up a chair to hit me but noticed his colleagues and stopped. He then left. Later, his co-worker returned my phone,“ added Charania. The other TTEs helped Charania reach the Kurla GRP outpost, where a case of assault was lodged.
Charania was taken to Bhabha Hospital at Kurla as there were bloodstains on his face. “The cops claim they are waiting to procure CCTV footage of the station. Singh is a railway employee and the cops have his address. There should not be any delay in arresting him,“ Charania said.

Attach train if rlys doesn't pay up for land: Court

Apr 14 2015 : The Times of India (Mumbai)

Attach train if rlys doesn't pay up for land: Court

Shimla: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





Two farmers from Himachal Pradesh's Una district may become proud owners of the Delhi-Una Janshatabdi Express on April 16 if a court order is executed.Una's additional district and sessions judge Mukesh Bansal on April 9 ordered the attachment of the train if the railways failed to pay compensation to the two farmers whose land was acquired to lay the Una-Amb track in 1998. The court said if Mela Ram and Madan Lal did not get Rs 8.91 lakh and Rs 26.53 lakh respectively , the train would be stopped at Una station at 5am on April 16 and attached by it. Ram and Lal had moved the court against the delay in payment even after the HP high court had directed the railways in 2013 to pay the money within six weeks. Advocate A K Saini, who represented the farmers, said the railways had acquired the land in 1998, following which the farmers filed a case seeking higher damages. In 2009, the railways too moved court, but in 2011 the district court raised the compensation amount and gave the railways three months to appeal.
But railways moved the HC only in 2013, and it ruled that the sum should be deposited in the court in six weeks. The Delhi-Una Janshatabdi Express could be attached by the district court in Una on April 16 if the railways fails to pay over Rs 35 lakh as compensation to two farmers whose land it had acquired to lay the Una-Amb track. The case has bounced from the lower court to the Himachal Pradesh high court, with the parties filing cases and counter cases. Finally, the HC di rected the railways in 2013 to pay the farmers within six weeks. “But the railways hasn't deposited the amount until now,“ the farmers' advocate A K Saini said.
As the high court had also made it clear that after the lapse of six weeks, the parties would be at liberty to execute the order, the aggrieved farmers moved the lower court. After hearing the plea on April 9, judge Mukesh Bansal ordered the attachment of the Janshatabadi train. “We'd submitted a list of four trains--two passenger, Himachal Express and Janshatabdi--and the court directed to attach the Janshatabdi,“ Saini said.

AGAINST ALL ODDS - Monika More, face of city's travel travails, appears for HSC exam Central Railway

Feb 24 2015 : The Times of India (Mumbai)

Vinamrata Borwankar

| TNN





Girl Who Lost Both Arms After Falling In Platform Gap Fights For Her Dream, Little Has Changed On Most Stations Across WR & CR

Sitting under the shadow of trees at her exam centre in Ghatkopar, Monika More is unfazed by the chaos of parents and students as she continued last-minute revision ahead of her first HSC paper on Monday morning.Over a year after her accident in which she lost both her arms, Monika, a commerce student, appeared for the English paper with assistance from a writer. “She is slowly getting used to the myoelectric arms and can write with it too but can't write a complete paper with it in the stipulated time. We have not attended therapy for the past few months as that would take up a lot of time and there wouldn't be enough time for her to study,“ said her father Ashok, who along with her mother was accompanying Monika to the exam centre at Saraswati Vidyamandir, Ghatkopar.
On January 11 last year, Monika, then 17 years old, was trying to board a local train from Ghatkopar when she fell into a pit on the platform. She lost her arms after coming under the moving train. Soon after, Monika and her family received tremendous public support while she was being treated Parel's KEM hospital and drew a lot of attention to commuter safety at stations.
A nervous Monika said she was confident of what she had studied. “I have been concentrating on preparations for the past two months but I am nervous as I am not writing the papers on my own,“ she said.
Monika's writer is a class XI student of her own college, T D Mehta Junior College of Commerce, Ghatkopar.
Last year, the teenager appeared for her class XI examinations with help from a writer from the hospital's orthopaedic ward.
Besides studying, Monika has been busy answering calls from well wishers. “Right from Saturday, her phone has been ringing constantly. Everyone is sending in wishes for the board exams and we are grateful for that,“ said her mother, Kavita.
When TOI spoke to Monika after the paper, she had already begun preparations for the Hindi paper she will appear for on Tuesday. “The paper was easy and the 10 minutes helped a lot to plan what I wanted to answer.There were instances when I just felt like taking a pen and writing the paper on my own,“ she said.
Apart from resuming training for using her myoelectric arms, Monika is also looking forward to participating in the meetings of the Divisional Railway User's Consultative Committee. “She attended a meeting in the last week of January and the next is scheduled for April. She wants to take contribute to making travel safe,“ said Ashok.
13 killed in rail accidents on Sunday
Thirteen commuters died and 11 others injured in separate railway accidents on Sunday. Five of the deceased, including two women, and one of those injured could not be identified. Of the 24 total mishaps reported, 15 were reported on the Central line.Four mishaps, the highest in a single day, were reported at the Bandra GRP outpost.
`Role as Monika's writer is a huge responsibility'
For first-year junior college student Aishwarya Pawar, being Monika More's writer for the HSC exams meant a lot of responsibility. Seated next to Monika outside the exam centre in Ghatkopar, Aishwarya too browsed through notes for a last-minute revision.
“It is like a rehearsal for me before I write the board exam next year. Like her, I am also nervous about the first paper,“ she said. Aishwarya too is a student of Monika's college. “My teacher, who also teaches Monika, suggested I be her writer for the board exam and I was happy to help. My parents also supported the idea and allowed me to go ahead with it,“ she added.
It is the first time as a writer for the class XI student. “Since it was my first time, we solved a practice paper a day earlier, so we can understand how to do it in the exam centre,“ said Aishwarya.
Finding a writer for the HSC exams had worried Monika and her parents ahead of the exam. “It is not easy to find a writer because class XI students too have their exams soon after the board exams. It is a cause for concern for many parents,“ said Uday Nare, member of the Maharashtra State Board committee.--Vinamrata Borwankar
ARTIFICIAL ARMS BUT TRUE GRIT
MISHAP LAST YEAR
Kurla girl Monika More, then 17, slipped and fell in an uncovered pit while trying to board a CST-bound local from Ghatkopar on the afternoon of January 11, 2014. Two samaritans rushed to her rescue and took her to hospital, even carrying her severed arms to Hospital, which however could not be reattached. The incident gave a whole new dimension to commuter safety as the Railways opened up to the idea of raising platform height
AN INCIDENT WHICH CHANGED HER LIFE
The college student was a spirited dancer before the accident. Certified as an ideal student in school for her neat handwriting and etiquettes,
Monika was known in her locality for her love of drawing mehndi designs. She had opted for commerce as she wanted to become a chartered accountant Monika beat the odds to continue her education after the accident, but she needs to be accompanied by a family member or friend.
She is still getting used to perform daily essential activities like eating, boarding an autorickshaw or bus She is now appearing for her HSC exams with the help of a writer
ADVANCED TECH IN USE
Monika was fitted with myo-electric arms called Variplus, specially imported from Germany at the behest of KEM Hospital doctors. The kit was complete with hands, electric wrist rotator, a battery mounting set and electrodes

Railway seeks new definition of an accident

Nov 18 2014 : Mirror (Mumbai) Yogesh Sadhwani TWEETS @yogeshsadhwani   Monika More's fall an accident or a consequence of carelessness? Three city MPs oppose an amendment to the Railways Act that will make it near impossible for victims to seek compensation Mumbai's parliamentarians have strongly objected to an amend ment proposed by the Centre in the Railways Act, which will make it virtually impossible for rail accident victims to get compensation.The proposed amendment seeks to change the meaning of an “accidental fall,“ besides putting the onus on the victim to prove that the accident was not a consequence of their “misadventures, carelessness, or negligence.“ If it passes, the amendment will have a huge impact on Mumbai, which has the largest suburban rail network in the country that ferries 7 million passengers daily and witnesses on an average 11 deaths a day. The amended Bill, introduced by the then Railway Minister DV Sadananda Gowda in the Lok Sabha for discussion on August 7, clearly states that passengers boarding or alighting moving trains or travelling on footboards should not be considered for compensation. Under the current Act, anyone who suffers an injury or dies in a rail accident is awarded compensation between Rs 80,000 to Rs 4 lakh by the Railway Tribunal. MPs from Mumbai are unhappy with the amendment, which provides for compensation for accidental falling of any passenger from a train but does not include “a passenger falling from a train while entering or leaving or attempting to enter or leave any carriage while the train is in motion... or while standing near the door or opens the door of any carriage while the train is in motion.“ Speaking to Mirror, MPs Kirit Somaiya, Gopal Shetty and Arvind Sawant said they have opposed the amendment on the floor of the house and will also oppose it in front of the parliamentary committee that is studying it. Besides these three MPs, several other elected representatives and activists have started writing to the committee hoping that their voices will prevail and the amendment would be withdrawn. The proposal adds that “most of the cases of `the accidental falling' arising out of falling down from train are because of negligence, carelessness and misadventure on the part of the passengers while entraining and detraining a moving train knowing that any accident may take place. However, railways are being made liable to pay compensation even when there is no fault on the part of railway.“ While the Bill is still with the Parliamentary Committee on Railway Act Amendment 2014, several activists and MPs have come out strongly opposing it. Advocate VS Chaugule, president of the Railway Accidents Victims' Association and also a practicing lawyer for past three decades at the railway tribunal said, “More than 95 per cent of the cases that come to the tribunal will get thrown out if the Bill comes through. The situation in suburban trains in Mumbai is different from other cities.Here trains are crowded and everybody is in a hurry to get to work. In the past, the Supreme Court and Bombay High Court have looked at this issue and ruled that such cases should get compensation. The only logic behind the Bill is to save money. We have made representations to Committee and other MPs to oppose the Bill.“ Kirit Somaiya, MP from Mumbai North East, besides raising concerns over the Bill added that victims should, in fact, be compensated faster. “Now that the Bill is with the Committee, I will make representations there to ensure that the amendment is not brought,“ said Somaiya, who has fought to get compensation for several accident victims. “If anything, there is a crying need to increase compensation and ensuring that it reaches the victim even when she is undergoing treatment. Most victims, for want of funds, end up losing out on proposer treatment after the accident.“ Arvind Sawant, MP from Mumbai South, too opposed the bill on the floor of the house.Saying he will oppose it in front of the committee also, Sawant said Mumbai is a strong case for why the amendment should not pass. “People are always in a hurry to get to work or home,“ said Sawant. “To earn their livelihood they travel by trains and end up getting hurt or even die. The amendment is certainly not acceptable.“ Echoing the views of the above two, Gopal Shetty, MP from Mumbai North, said the suburban rail network should be beefed up before even thinking of something like this. “Commuters in Mumbai risk their lives to get on to crowded suburban trains to get to work. While doing so if they are hurt, how can they be denied compensation?“

Passenger en route to funeral turns saviour for 3-year-old

Jyoti Punwani mirrorfeedback@timesgroup.com TWEETS @_MumbaiMirror 

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=MIRRORNEW&BaseHref=MMIR/2014/05/11&PageLabel=8&EntityId=Ar00801&ViewMode=HTML

    Humanity is a strange thing. Once you realise your life has been saved, you want to save others, see them live.” Thus said Farooq Mapkar, a passenger of the ill-fated Diva-Sawantwadi passenger train, which derailed last Sunday morning. 
    Mapkar, 47, was going to his village in Chiplun and was lucky to escape with minor bruises. But all around him there were passengers trapped under others, or under parts of the broken train. 
    Mapkar could have simply picked himself up and walked away. Instead, he stayed on to see how he could help, and that led him to rescue three-yearold Samruddhi Nakti, and get her admitted to hospital with help from three good Samaritans, including the drivers of an autorickshaw and a six-seater who charged him no fare. That she would lose her leg later, was a tragedy he wasn’t to know then. 
    In the midst of the chaos that followed the accident between Nagothane and Roha on Sunday, Mapkar heard Samruddhi’s father repeatedly crying out: ‘Save my daughter’. “The father was crushed under someone else’s weight, but I found his daughter and managed to extricate her,” Mapkar said. Having gingerly puller her out from the train, Farooq loosely tied her leg which had broken, and then set off to find help. A family in a Maruti car stopped when he flagged them down, got off and allowed their driver to take Mapkar and the girl to the nearest station, Nagothane. 
    From there, Mapkar found a six-seater whose driver took him and the girl to Roha bus stand. There, an auto driver took him to the nearest private hospital in Roha. 
    “The doctor there immediately attended to her, but it was obvious he didn’t have all the facilities he needed,” said Mapkar. By then, more patients began to arrive, and the doctor requested Mapkar to take two other patients too in a charitable Shiv Sena ambulance to the nearest government hospital in Alibag. 
    “Mywallethadfallenoffsomewhereintheaccident, I had neither money nor my ticket with me,” said Mapkar. The doctor offered him Rs 2,000, which Mapkar refused. He then took Samruddhi, and the other two patients, a teenage girl and man named Chavan, to the Civil Hospital in Alibag. Chavan, however, did not make it. 
    But it was three-year-old Samruddhi’s courage that amazed Mapkar. “She must have been in great pain, but she uttered not a word. She sat on my lap quietly, giving me no trouble,” Mapkar said. He stayed with her till she was admitted to the Alibag hospital, and then left for his home. Ironically, he had been heading to his uncle’s funeral, but ended up saving others. 
    Samruddhi was later transferred to Sion hospital, where her leg had to be amputated. Her father has also been admitted there, but doesn’t know of the tragedy that has befallen his daughter, nor does he know his wife died in the mishap. Samruddhi's elder sister is undergoing treatment in a Vashi hospital. 
    Mapkar discounts the theory that a defect in the trackcausedtheaccident.Accordingtohim,theDiwa-Sawantwadi passenger is always late and always packed. It also has to make way for an express train that follows. Hence the Diwa-Sawantwadi loco pilots tend to drive at breakneck speed to make up for lost time. “If the Railways ensure that the passenger train runs on time, such mishaps wouldn’t occur,” Mapkar said. He also feels that the Railways should not insist on accident victims producing their ticketstoclaimcompensation,asticketscangetlostina mishap, as his did. 
    Incidentally, Mapkar had cheated death once before — in the 1992-93 post-Babri Masjid demolitionriots.Hewasshotintheshoulderfromtheback as he knelt to pray in Wadala’s Hari Masjid on January10, 1993. Six persons died in the police firing that day, four of them inside the mosque. Justice B N Srikrishna recommended strict action against then Assistant Sub-Inspector Nikhil Kapse, but the government refused to act. Mapkar successfully petitioned a court to order a CBI inquiry, but the CBI too exonerated Kapse. Mapkar has challenged that finding.

Mapkar took Samruddhi to hospital. That she lost leg later was a tragedy he wasn’t to know then

Railways not keen on getting back Matheran’s first ever locomotive

Rajendra B Aklekar @timesgroup.com TWEETS @rajtoday  http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=MIRRORNEW&BaseHref=MMIR/2014/04/15&PageLabel=10&EntityId=Ar01002&ViewMode=HTML     The Indian Railways on Monday said they are not interested in buying one of the first four original steam locomotives of the heritage Matheran Light Railway (MLR) which have been put up on sale by the Railworld Museum at Peterborough, UK. The MLR 740 has been in the museum for the past thirty years.      On April 10, Mirror had reported that the present-day generation of Sir AdamjeePeerbhoy,whobuilttheNeral-Matheran railway route over a century ago, wanted the railways and the government to bring back an original locomotivethatoperatedontheMLR.      “We will not be interested in buying the engine as we already several of a similar type here,” Subodh Jain, railway board member (engineering), told Mumbai Mirror.      The present-day generation of the Peerbhoy family was not happy with the railways’ decision. “First of all, the locomotive should not have gone out of India. But now that it is up for sale, it needs to be brought back by the railways,” said Ali Akbar Adamjee Peerbhoy, the second great grandson of Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy.      “The locos had been bought by the Peerbhoy family, how could the Indian Railways give it out to another country? If I remember correctly, the engine had been put up on display outside CST, then one day it was removed,” Ali Akbar added.      The MLR 740 was donated to Britain by the Indian government in 1985 in recognition of services towards the establishment of India’s National Railway Museum. The engine was acquired by the Amberley Chalk Pits Museum and arrived in UK on November 28, 1986. It was donated to Railworld Museum in 1991.      Sources said the four novel steam locomotives had been bought specially for the mountainous stretch from Messrs. Orienstein & Koppel, Germany, in 1907. They were made especially for the narrow curves and steep climbs of the Matheran hills.      Of the original four engines – MLR 738, MLR 739, MLR 740, MLR 741 --that survive today, MLR 740 has been in the UK for the last three decades. The Railworld Museum said that the locomotive will be sold to someone with the resources and commitment to restore and operate the Berlin-built locomotive with access to the public. The sale is being managed on behalf of the trustees by The International Railway Preservation Society (IRPS). The engine arriving in Peterborough The century-old engine has been in the UK for the past 30 years