No special treatment given to HRD minister's PS: Railways

 The railways on Monday downplayed reports which claimed that an extra coach was attached to a train for Union Minister Prakash Javadekar's private secretary on October 21, saying he was one of the many passengers accommodated in the additional coach due to the huge rush.

Officials said Vinay Srivastava, the Human Resource Development Minister's private secretary who was travelling with his wife and two children, had requested for seats on Padmavati Express between Lucknow and Delhi railway station, but denied that the extra coach was attached to accommodate his request. Srivastava is a 1992-batch Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers official. "During this holiday season as many as 68 extra coaches have been attached to different trains. In fact nine extra coaches have been attached from Lucknow on October 21 and October 22 alone.

"This is a routine exercise to accommodate the additional rush. This time it just so happened that one of the passengers was a PS to a Union minister," said Northern Railway spokesperson Neeraj Sharma. Sharma also said that even a public announcement for the coach was done and it was almost full by the time it reached Delhi. Many passengers were able to travel that day because of the additional coach, he said. However, the official said the matter will be probed in light of media reports which claimed that the move had inconvenienced some passengers.