December 22, 2002 Kerala Monitor

18 PERSONS KILLED IN THE TRAIN ACCIDENT NEAR GOOTY IN KURNOOL DISTRICT OF ANDHRA PRADESH

In the Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh, 7685 UP Kacheguda-Bangalore Express met with an accident when its Engine and next 9 Coaches derailed near Gooty Station on Block Section Pendekallu-Pagidirai of Guntakal Division of South Central Railway at 00.45 hrs on 21.12.2002. 18 persons have been killed and 80 injured in the accident. The injured have been admitted in hospitals at Kurnool and Gooty. The derailed Coaches of the affected train, are Front Passenger-cum-Parcel Compartment, Ordinary Second Class Compartment, S-14, S-1, S-2, S-3, S-4, S-5, S-6.

Accident relief trains and Medical relief Van reached the accident site in the middle of the night to assist in the relief and rescue operation. General Manager of South Central Railway, Divisional Railway Manager of Guntakal and other senior Railway and District officials have also reached the accident site. The Railway Minister Sh. Nitish Kumar, who is in Patna has conveyed deep condolences over the death of the Passengers. Sh. Nitish Kumar has also announced that an increased amount of Rs.1 lakh will be paid as ex-gratia in case of death. Ex-gratia payment is also being arranged for the injured passengers. He has also directed to take up relief and rescue operation on war footing and provide immediate medical care. The Minister of State for Railways Shri Bandaru Dattatreya alongwith Chairman Railway Board, Member Engineering, Railway Board and other senior officials is on his way from Delhi to the accident site. The Minister of State for Railways Shri A.K. Moorthy is also on his way from Chennai to the accident site.

Remaining 14 Coaches of the ill fated train taking stranded Passengers are being brought to Guntakal Railway Station. Buses are being arranged for transporting passengers to different destinations. A number of Public enquiry booths have been setup at various Stations like Secunderabad, Bangalore, Guntakal, Kurnool, Hyderabad. The information regarding the list of Passengers etc. is being made available at the web sites of Indian Railway as well as of South Central Railway. Efforts are being made to restore the traffic in the affected Section at the earliest. A special train carrying relatives and well-wishers of the Passengers of the affected train has also left Bangalore for the accident site.

Commissioner Railway Safety, South Central Circle, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India, who will conduct the enquiry into the accident, has also reached the accident site. -keralamonitor.com

DGFT BECOMES INDIA'S FIRST DIGITAL SIGNATURE ENABLED AGENCY

MAJOR STEP FORWARD IN PAPERLESS TRADING

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, has become India’s first digital signature enabled agency, marking a big step forward in the promotion of paperless trading in the country’s foreign trade sector. The DGFT, yesterday, signed an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with M/s. SafeScrypt Limited, who will provide the DGFT with necessary technical support and consultancy services in this regard. Accordingly, the infrastructure available in DGFT for Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) would now be PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) enabled and there would be seamless transmission of authorised information.

The MOU was signed by Shri L. Mansingh, Director General of Foreign Trade (e-mail: mansingh@ub.delhi.nic.in) and Shri K. Dasaratharaman, Managing Director, SafeScript Limited, (dash@safescrypt.com) in the presence of Senior Officers of the Directorate. From 1st December, 2002 the Office of DGFT at New Delhi has become digital signature enabled. All the notifications issued by the DGFT are being signed with encrypted digital signature. As a result, all Exim notifications, public notices, and in course of time, licences issued by DGFT can be electronically transmitted with digital signature, obviating the need of securing a authenticated paper copy thereof. The exporting community who apply for import/export licences, Importer Exporter Code (IEC) would now be able to interact with DGFT on a secured electronic platform which will facilitate paperless verification, processing and communication.

The office of DGFT is taking steps to enable Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) facility so that the exporters can transmit their applications along with the application fee, as and where necessary without physically visiting either a bank or the office of DGFT. Negotiations are underway with other public sector banks like State Bank of India, Central Bank of India and other private sector banks like ICICI and HDFC etc. in this regard. It is expected that shortly with the EFT facility being made functional, the simultaneous activation of EFT and digital signature would enable DGFT to take a gigantic leap in e-governance initiative with complete paperless transaction.

At the moment DGFT is the first Government department to have become digital signature enabled. The Controller of Certifying Authority (CCA) has permitted SafeScrypt Limited, a 100% subsidiary of Satyam Infoway and an affiliate of Verisign-USA, as the first licensed Certifying Authority (CA) under the IT Act 2000. Subsequently, M/s. TCS Limited and Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) Hyderabad have also become Certifying Authorities (CAs). National Informatics System (NIC) and Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) are also in the process of obtaining licence to become Certifying Authority (CA) to grant digital signature facility. keralamonitor.com