MCC in place; Railways denied permission for function

Following the Model Code of Conduct in place for Legislative Council by-elections here, Election Commission denied permission to Railways for organising a function involving BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, who was scheduled to flag off a superfast train here today.
Railway officials had yesterday said that senior BJP leader and local MP Murli Manohar Joshi will flag off a new superfast weekly train between here and Bandra in Mumbai from Kanpur Central Railway Station at 4:15 PM today and that preparations were being made for the function.
However, the Election Commission denied permission to Railways for organising such a function in view of Model Code of Conduct in place in the city for by-elections to Legislative Council to Kanpur division graduates' constituency slated for January 19, Chief Public Relations Officer of Northern Central Railway Navin Babu said.

"We had asked permission from EC for the function, but it outrightly denied permission to flag off a train by any politician," Babu said, adding, the train will now depart from Kanpur at 4.15 PM without any official function.
However, from next Wednesday, the scheduled time of departure of the train from here will be 6.15 PM. It will reach Bandra at 11.15 PM the next day, officials said.
The train will travel through Hathras, Mathura, Bharatpur, Sawai Madhopur, Ratlam, Surat, and Wapi.
It will start for Kanpur from Bandra on Fridays and is expected to benefit traders of the city as they travel to Mumbai often for business purposes.