Ahmedabad Beat

Allowance for GEB engineers
About 4,500 engineers of the Gujarat Electricity Board (GEB) will get special field allowance and other benefits following an agreement reached between the management and the GEB Engineers Association here on Saturday. According to vice-president N J Yagnik, the implementation will be on retrospective effect of January 1, 1996. The acceptance of the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations had imposed a burden of Rs 114 crore on the board. Special compensatory allowance, generation allowance, medical allowance and house rent would also form part of the deal, he said. The GEB engineers were agitating for their demands for the past six months.

Greetings
Governor Anshuman Singh and Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel have extended Diwali greetings to the people of the State. The Governor will meet the people on the Samvat New Year day on Wednesday at Raj Bhavan, Gandhinagar, from 9.30 a.m. to 10.15 a.m. and at Raj Bhavan Annexe, Ahmedabad, from 11 a.m. to noon. Similarly, the Chief Minister will also be meeting people at his Gandhinagar residence from 8.30 a.m. to noon at the Circuit House Annexe, Ahmedabad on Wednesday.

Shawl offered
Maninagar Shree Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan Acharya Purshottam Priya Swami called on Vice-President Krishan Kant and offered Diwali greetings to him at Raj Bhavan. The Acharya also offered a shawl to the Vice-President.

MLA’s plea
Kalupur MLA Farooq Shaikh has urged the Railway Minister to made adequate facilities for the Gujarat pilgrims who have gone to attend the 786 Urs festival in Ajmer. In a letter to the ministry, he has urged the latter to attach some additional compartment in the Delhi bound trains up to Ajmer. The festival starts from October 21. He has also urged the State government to rope in extra buses from Ajmer to carry the pilgrims back home.