Ludhiana: Railway staff protest for promotions

The union of loco pilots had put forward five demands in a meeting on January 9. The loco pilots had demanded promotion of senior assistant loco pilots to loco pilot shunting and also sought redressal of the issue of shortage of shunters in the division.

Railway running staff staged a protest in the running room of the Ludhiana station here, seeking their promotions, on Saturday. The protest was held against the senior divisional electrical engineer/operations (Sr DEE/OP) and the additional divisional railway manager (ADRM), workers said.

Railway employees during a protest in Ludhiana on Saturday.

The divisional officers were in the running room for an inspection. The staff have been protesting for a month. The union of loco pilots had put forward five demands in a meeting on January 9. The loco pilots had demanded promotion of senior assistant loco pilots to loco pilot shunting and also sought redressal of the issue of shortage of shunters in the division. Shunting trains is the process of sorting and grouping freight cars into complete trains for departure.

They demanded promotions of loco pilot passenger (LPP), promotions to the posts of loco pilot goods and loco pilot mail as well.

According to Prakhar Verma, branch secreatary, Northern Railway Men’s Union (NRMU), “Three crew control staff from Ludhiana and one from Pathankot had been ordered to repatriate to their cadre. As there is no vacancy in the cadre now, they were transferred to Firozpur. Loco pilots are made crew control staff members for three years and then sent back to their cadre. Since they hadn’t chosen to become crew control staffers and leave their cadre for three years, it was not their fault that there were no vacancies at the respective stations.”

The protesters demanded one-year extension for them. They also demanded consideration of seniority in the appointment of loco lobby.

The protesters said the senior divisional electrical engineer/operations had promised that the demands would be fulfilled in 15 days but when contacted, the senior divisional electrical engineer/operations as well as the additional divisional railway manager refused to comment.