Patna, July 07: Facing strident criticism over the spate of recent accidents and late running of trains, Railway Minister Nitish Kumar today made a surprise inspection of Danapur and Patna stations and ordered transfer of three senior officials of East Central Railway on the charge of dereliction of duty. Annoyed over frequent complaints of late running of trains in Danapur division and poor quality of food being served in trains originating from Patna, Kumar made a surprise inspection of the rail control room at Danapur and Patna junction and on being dissatisfied with the reply of the concerned officials, ordered the transfer of three officers.
The officials punished by the minister included senior divisional commercial manager (SDCM) Neeraj Ambastha, senior divisional operating manager (SDOM) Sudhendu Sinha and Additional Divisional Rail Manager (ADRM) H K Singh, ECR sources said. With ECR general manager R S Vashney accompanying him, Kumar sat for hours at the control room and monitored movement of the trains in the division.
The SDOM and ADRM could not give satisfactory reply about the delay in running of trains following which the minister ordered their transfer, the sources said. Later, Kumar visited Patna junction and inspected quality of food that was being served in the trains. He was perturbed to find flies swarming the food and poor packaging. Not satisfied with the reply of the SDCM as to why the food was kept in unhygienic condition, the minister ordered his transfer.
The railway minister has called a meeting of ECR officials here tomorrow for a review of the functioning of the zone. Bureau Report