State PCS

• 03 Nov 2023

Saumya Mathur Becomes the First Woman General Manager of North Eastern Railway

Why In News?

On November 1, 2023, Soumya Mathur, Additional Member (Finance), Railway Board, assumed charge as the first woman General Manager of North Eastern Railway (NER).

Key Points:

• Due to the transfer of General Manager of North Eastern Railway, Chandraveer Raman, Soumya Mathur has been appointed as the new General Manager of North Eastern Railway by the Railway Board after the approval of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.
• Soumya Mathur is the first woman General Manager of North Eastern Railway, till now no woman officer has been made the General Manager of NER since its formation in 1952.
• NER's new GM Soumya Mathur entered the railway service through the 1987 batch of the Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS). The first appointment was in Vadodara, Western Railway. He has worked on many important posts in the Accounts Department in Western, Northern and Central Railways.
• Apart from this, she has worked on important posts like Additional Divisional Railway Manager, Western Railway/Mumbai Central, Divisional Railway Manager, North Western Railway/Jaipur, Principal Financial Advisor/Metro Railway/Kolkata and Principal Financial Advisor/South Eastern Railway/Kolkata.
• He has also served as Divisional Railway Manager, Jaipur. During his tenure, Jaipur station got platinum green rating.
• Soumya Mathur also successfully operated the Gandhinagar-Jaipur route as an all-women main line station. He was given the special award of Best Change Agent for Transformation Initiative by the Railway Board for his change initiative. In addition, he has participated in senior management training programs at JICA (Japan), INSEAD (Singapore) and ICLIF (Malaysia).
• It is noteworthy that the North Eastern Railway came into existence on April 14, 1952. It was formed by merging the Fatehgarh district of Avadh Tirhut Railway, Assam Railway and the old BB&CI Railway. It was inaugurated by the first Prime Minister of India, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru.
• North-East Frontier Railway was formed on January 15, 1958. After this, Gorakhpur was made the headquarters of North Eastern Railway. At present there are three divisions in North Eastern Railway, with their headquarters at Varanasi, Lucknow and Izzatnagar.

Patna's Shwetank Wins Best Judoka A ward in CBSE East Zone Judo Championship

Why In News?

CBSE East Zone Judo Championship was concluded at Knowledgegram Campus, Patna on October 31, 2023, in which Patna student Shwetank won the Best Judoka Award.

Key Points:

• Aditi Sharma, a student from Uttar Pradesh won the Best Judoka Award (Student) in the CBSE Zonal Judo Championship.
• It may be noted that CBSE East Zone Judo Championship was organized at Knowledgegram Campus, Patna from October 28 to 31, 2023.
• In the Judo Championship, competitions were held in the 49 KG weight category. A total of 392 medals (gold, silver and bronze medals) were distributed.
• Winners of special awards of the championship:
  • Best Judoka Award (Student): Aditi Sharma, Radiant Central Academy, Ambedkar Nagar, Uttar Pradesh
  • Best Judoka Award (Student): Shwetank, Open Minds Birla School, Danapur, Patna, Bihar
  • Championship 1st Position: Radiant Central Academy, Jalalpur, Ambedkar Nagar, Uttar Pradesh
  • Championship 2nd Position: MGM Higher Secondary School, Bokaro, Jharkhand
  • Championship 3rd Position: Guru Gobind Singh Public School, Bokaro, Jharkhand
  • Group Champion (Under 11 Students): Grizzly Vidyalaya, Koderma, Jharkhand
  • Group Champion (Under 14 Students): Open Minds Birla School, Danapur, Patna, Bihar
  • Group Champion (Under 17 Students): Radiant Central Academy, Jalalpur, Ambedkar Nagar, Uttar Pradesh
  • Group Champion (Under 19 Students): Radiant Central Academy, Jalalpur, Ambedkar Nagar, Uttar Pradesh
  • Group Champion (Under 11 Girls): Delhi Public School, Etawah, Uttar Pradesh
  • Group Champion (Under 14 Girls): Guru Gobind Singh Public School, Bokaro, Jharkhand
  • Group Champion (Under 17 Girls): MGM Higher Secondary, Bokaro, Jharkhand
  • Group Champion (Under 19 Girls): MGM Higher Secondary, Bokaro, Jharkhand

Haryana is the First State to Implement Property ID in the Entire Country

Why In News? 

On October 31, 2023, Haryana's Urban Local Bodies Minister Dr. Kamal Gupta said in a press conference that Haryana is the first state to implement Property ID in the entire country.  

Key Points: 

• Dr. Kamal Gupta said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi appreciated Chief Minister Manohar Lal's 'Creation of New Property-ID under Normal and Tatkal Scheme' and also suggested other states to adopt it.
• Giving information regarding Property ID, Dr. Gupta said that 34 lakh properties falling inside Lal Dora have been integrated into the new Property ID and a new Property ID has been created. Now the registry can automatically upload property ID data.
• He said that so far, out of 2274 unauthorized colonies, 494 have been authorized and work on others is going on. Around 850 colonies will be authorized by January 31, 2024.
• Dr. Gupta said that under the ownership scheme, the Urban Local Bodies Department has also done the work of providing ownership rights to the shopkeepers who complete 20 years on December 31, 2020.
• The minister said that any information related to property can be sent to the citizens of urban local bodies through SMS.
• Dr. Gupta said that exemption has been given for a limited time on full payment of property tax for the year 2023-24, which exemption will continue till November 15, 2023. Now property holders can verify their property data themselves on the departmental portal to remove any type of error.