New Delhi: Trashing Railway's punctuality
claim, Comptroller and Auditor General has found majority of
trains including Rajdhani and Shatabdi reaching destinations
late.
CAG has noted that while railway zones continued to
report a healthy punctuality performance of 95 per cent,
trains repeatedly reached destinations beyond their scheduled
time during 2007-08.
Even the punctuality record was also being incorrectly
reported by the railway zones, CAG observed.
On the introduction of new trains, it has found that
31 new trains out of total 108 had less than 50 per cent
occupancy. The losses on account of operating these 31 pairs
of trains alone since their inception between 2003-04 and
2007-08 were Rs 100.90 crore.
Finding severe fault in maintenance, CAG has observed
basic amenities missing in some of the so called developed
model stations while amenities were poorly maintained in
several stations.
It has also found that amenities for the physically
challenged were inadequately provided in stations and Indian
Railways was not completely in compliance with the People with
Disabilities, Equal Opportunities and Protection of Rights Act
of 1995.
Finding fault with Railways security plan, CAG noted
that it did not have clear demarcation of the trains to be
escorted by RPF and GRP staff. Neither it has framed any
guidelines for providing security staff on board the trains.
There was shortage of manpower and security equipment
which hampered provision of security in trains, the report
said.
A test check in the Eastern Zone revealed that a
considerable number of security equipment available including
hand held metal detectors, hand held search lights and
Walkie-talkie sets were defective, the report added
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, July 24, 2009, 21:52