Mumbai: In the wake of multiple incidents of Vande Bharat train colliding with cattle in Gujarat, the Railway Protection Force has started issuing notices to the heads of villages located along the route in Maharashtra’s Palghar, asking them not allow the animals roam unattended near the tracks, officials said on Friday.

The notices warned that if any cattle owner is found to be negligent, then legal action could be taken against him.

The semi-high speed express train service between the capital cities of Gujarat and Maharashtra was launched on September 30 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Since its inception, three incidents have taken place in Gujarat in which the train collided with cattle.

Talking to PTI, Western Railway chief spokesperson Sumit Thakur said notices are being issued by the Mumbai division of the RPF to the sarpanchs of the villages, in which the authorities have appealed to the local residents not to let their cattle loiter along the tracks so that such mishaps can be averted.

The notices issued to the sarpanchs are preventive in nature, Thakur said.

Last Saturday, the Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat Superfast Express rammed into cattle near Atul station in Gujarat. It was the third such incident since the inception of the train service. Earlier, on October 6 and 7, the train had rammed into some cattle. Both the incidents had occurred in Gujarat. In all these incidents, the passengers were not hurt, although the train’s front portion suffered damages.

“Such cattle run-over incidents adversely affected the rail operations. Such incidents increase the possibility of rail accidents and can even lead to derailment. They not only cause disruption of rail traffic and loss of property of the railways, but also pose danger to passengers,” Thakur said.

In the notices issued to the sarpanchs, the RPF said that a large number of stray animals (cows and buffaloes) come on to the railway tracks and there is always a possibility that the train-cattle collision can lead to major accidents,

In the notices, the RPF has appealed to the sarpanchs to conduct an awareness campaign for villagers living near the railway tracks.

“Please catch the stray animals and send them to gaushalas (cow shelters) built by the administration or social organisations and also make the residents of the village aware of this in the gram sabha meetings,” the notice read.

The notices further warned that if any animal owner is negligent, then it is an offense punishable under the Railways Act, legal action would be taken against him.

Thakur further said that for the prevention of such cases in future, the RPF’s Mumbai division has identified various vulnerable locations. The RPF has carried out frequent awareness and sensitisation campaigns at all these locations.

“The RPF has conducted 1,023 awareness campaigns at vulnerable locations so far this year,” Thakur said.

He further said that meetings are being conducted with sarpanchs of all villages located along the railway tracks and so far more than 50 meetings have been held this year to avoid the incidents of cattle hit.

Thakur further said that dumping of garbage along the railway tracks by the people is also a cause as this attracts the cattle to graze near the railway lands/tracks. The RPF is also working in close coordination with city the local administration and police to prevent the movement of stray cattle near railway tracks.

A press release issued by the WR last week said the railway authorities are taking strict action against the violators, whose cattle are found moving in the railway land.

As per the provisions of Railways Act 1989, owners of cattle are liable to be punished under section 154 (endangering safety of persons travelling by railway by wilful act or omission, punishable with imprisonment for 1 year, or with fine or both) and under section 147 (trespass and refusal to desist from trespass, punishable with imprisonment for 6 months, or fine Rs 1,000 or both), the release said.

Amritsar/Chandigarh: Shiv Sena leader Sudhir Suri was shot dead by unidentified people in Punjab’s Amritsar on Friday, police said.

The incident took place outside a temple in the city where Suri and some other leaders of the party were holding a protest, they said.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the validity of the Employees Pension (Amendment) Scheme of 2014 but quashed the threshold limit of Rs 15,000 monthly salary for joining the pension fund.

The 2014 amendment had capped the maximum pensionable salary (basic pay plus dearness allowance) at Rs 15,000 per month. Prior to the amendment, the maximum pensionable salary was capped at Rs 6,500 a month.

A bench of Chief Justice UU Lalit and Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudhanshu Dhulia, however, read down certain provisions of the scheme.

Employees who have not exercised the option to join the pension scheme must do so within six months, the bench said.

It added that eligible employees who could not join the scheme by the cut-off date should be given an additional chance as there was a lack of clarity on the issue in view of judgments passed by the high courts of Kerala, Rajasthan and Delhi.

The bench further held as invalid the condition in the 2014 scheme that required employees to make a further contribution at 1.16 per cent on salary exceeding Rs 15,000.

It held that the condition to make additional contribution on the salary exceeding the threshold limit to be ultra vires but added that this part of the judgment would be kept in suspension for six months to enable the authorities to generate funds.

The Employees Provident Fund Organisation and the Centre challenged the verdicts of the high courts of Kerala, Rajasthan and Delhi, which had quashed the 2014 scheme.

Mumbai: An undertrial gangster brought a plastic bottle filled with dead mosquitoes to a court here to highlight their menace in the jail he is lodged in.

Gangster Ejaz Lakdawala on Thursday brought the bottle and sought a mosquito net, but his plea was rejected by the sessions court.

Lakdawala, a former associate of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, is facing multiple criminal cases, including those under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). He was arrested in January 2020 and has been lodged at the Taloja prison in neighbouring Navi Mumbai since then.

He had recently filed an application in court seeking permission to use a mosquito net. Lakdwala, in his application, said that in 2020 when he was remanded in judicial custody, he was permitted to use one but in May this year, the prison authorities seized the net citing security concerns.

On Thursday, when Lakdawala was produced before the sessions court, he showed a plastic bottle filled with dead mosquitoes and said the inmates of Taloja jail have to face this problem everyday. But the jail authorities opposed the plea citing security reasons.

The court while rejecting the application said the accused applicant (Lakdawala) could use Odomos and other mosquito repellents.

Apart from Lakdawala, several undertrials from the Taloja prison have also filed similar applications.

In some applications, the request was allowed, but in others they were rejected.

Gangster D K Rao was permitted by the court to use mosquito net by one judge, but another judge did not permit the same to a few accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case and a direction was given to the prison authorities to take all necessary precautions to curb the mosquito menace.

In September this year, activist Gautam Navlakha had also filed an application seeking permission to use a net, which is still pending.