Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on July 7 flagged the plight of loco pilots and asserted that the INDIA bloc will raise its voice in Parliament to improve their rights and working conditions.
Mr. Gandhi made these remarks on X as he posted a video of his recent interaction with loco pilots at the New Delhi Railway Station. “In Narendra Modi’s government, the train of the life of loco pilots has been completely derailed,” the former Congress chief said.
He said loco pilots are forced to work 16 hours a day sitting in cabins boiling with heat. “The people on whom millions of lives depend have no confidence in their own lives. Deprived of even basic facilities like urinals, loco pilots have no limit on working hours and neither do they get leaves. Due to which they are getting physically and mentally broken and are falling ill,” Mr. Gandhi said in his post in Hindi. In such a situation, making loco pilots drive trains is putting their lives and that of the passengers at risk, he added.
The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) will raise its voice in Parliament to improve the rights and working conditions of loco pilots, he asserted. In the video, the loco pilots informed Mr. Gandhi about the “inhuman working conditions”.
On Friday, after Mr. Gandhi met a group of loco pilots, who complained of “inadequate rest due to understaffing”. He had assured them that he would raise their issues in the Parliament. He had met around 50 loco pilots from all over India at the New Delhi Railway Station and they explained to him their issues, party sources had said.
