Gulbarga:Presenting a Dasara gift to lakhs of  C and D category railway employees, Union railway minister Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday announced a 10 to 20 per cent hike in pay for them as recommended by the Cadre Restructuring Committee.

Although the railways would incur an additional expenditure of Rs 1600 crore per annum following the revision, it would not seek  budgetary support from the finance department, but  mobilise  its own resources to fund it, he explained.

The minister also revealed it had been decided to give 78 days productivity linked bonus to the  employees as against the stipulated 73 days.

Kharge denied reports that the Prime Minister had turned down a file on appointment of the Railway Board chairman.

“What I understand is that he has asked for  change of rules. Fresh proposals have been sent to him on his instructions,” he added.

Revealing that the railways would start a train service on the new Kolar- Chikkaballapur, Kadur-Chikkamagalur and Bidar-Humanabad routes within a couple of months, he said the safety commissioners had submitted reports for the Kadur-Chikkamagalur and Kolar-Chikkaballapur lines and the report for the Bidar-Humnabad line was awaited.

Kharge also announced that exams would soon be held in 15 zones across the country for filling up 60,000  C and D category posts in the railways this year. The exams would be held simultaneously to prevent candidates of one region appearing for them in another.