Mamata Banerjee announces slew of staff-friendly proposals

Several employee-friendly initiatives including medical colleges and nursing institutions for their children figured in Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee's budget for her ministry presented in the Lok Sabha Friday.

The minister also announced advanced medical treatment for railway employees and special drive to recruit from the minority communities, the physically challenged and women as part of her budget proposals unveiled in the lower house of parliament.

"We are proud of our 14 lakh (1.4 million) employees. They are the leaders and our engine of growth," Banerjee said in her 65-minute speech.

She said seven nursing colleges will be opened on railway land in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai (Kalyan), Chennai, Secunderabad, Lucknow and Jabalpur on the public-private partnership model for the wards of railway employees.

"Medical colleges are planned to be established, attached to existing railway hospitals through public-private partnerships, to give higher education facilities to new generation of railway children," she added.

The locations for medical colleges include Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, Mysore, Guwahati, Nagpur and Trivandrum.

The minister also proposed setting up of indoor stadia to promote sports, cultural and extra-curricular activities in major railway divisions and zones.

"We want to promote sports and cultural activities among the railway persons. I appreciate all railway sports persons who participated in national and international events. Sports persons will get their share in recruitment," said Banerjee.

The budget also announced scholarships for higher education of employees especially for girls, apart from construction of 6,560 staff quarters under the corporate welfare plan.

Last updated on Jul 3^rd, 2009 at 15:48 pm IST--IANS