Rajdhani Express reaches Manipur on trial run
The Hindu
Officials said that the service will soon be formally inaugurated by the Railways Minister
Manipur is at last is going to be included in the railway map of India. A Rajdhani Express from Silchar in Assam entered Manipur on Friday for the first time having a rail line of 11 km. Railway officials at Silchar boarded the passenger train, which came up to Vangaichungpao station in Tamenglong district bordering Nagaland. Railway officials halted briefly at the Silchar Railway Station, where they hosted the Indian flag and sang the national anthem. Officials said that the service will soon be formally inaugurated by the Railways Minister. The plan is to reach Imphal and eventually construct the last railway station at Moreh, Manipur’s border town. There have been inordinate delays due to landslides and other natural calamities. Lockdowns and strikes also obstructed the construction work. Some employees and workers were kidnapped for huge sums as ransom.Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.