The railwaymen will go on a sustained struggle if their demands are not met soon, threatened All India Railwaymen’s Federation general secretary Shiva Gopal Mishra.
At the annual general council meeting of the South Central Railway Mazdoor Union here on Monday, he said the railwaymen were efficiently running 20,000 trains daily though there are two lakh vacancies in Railways. The Railway Ministry and Union government are indifferent to the demands of the railway men who were risking their lives for smooth operation of trains, he said.
The major demands of the railwaymen are implementation of cadre restructuring, allowing parents based on privilege pass and reversal to the earlier recruitment system at workshops.
South Central Railway General Manager G.N. Asthana and Men’s Union general secretary Sankara Rao were present.“We have approached all the forums from National Council of JCM to Departmental Council but to no avail,” said Mr. Sankara Rao. The Minister for Railways had promised that all welfare schemes announced by former minister Mamata Banerjee would be implemented especially medical facilities, education to children of railwaymen etc but nothing had been done so far, said Mr. Gopal Mishra.
Running staff are most important for safe running of trains but they are a neglected lot, said Mr. Mishra. Following the recent Tamil Nadu Express accident at Nellore the Railway Board had begun to fill up the vacancies but their demands were still ignored, he said.
In response to a call given by the All India Railwaymen’s Federation, technical staff, supervisors and running staff will stage a dharna on August 30 to press for implementation of the Cadre Restructuring Committee reports. They would hold a protest demo on September 19.
