Railway employee unions' protest against Centre's privatisation policy

Kolkata: Railway employee unions' held protests at different stations against central government's privatisation policies on Monday.

"Today, we are staging a demonstration against Indian Railways' decision of allowing private passenger train operators to run 151 trains on 109 routes," said Dilip Dutta Chowdhury, president of Eastern Railway Men's Union (ERMU).

He reiterated that ERMU, along with All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA), had also protested at Howrah station, Liluah station and inside Farlie Place (Eastern Railway Headquarter).

The protestors also raised slogans against Indian Railway Board's decision to put a

freeze on the creation of new posts. While Indian Railways will freeze new posts creation except in the 'safety category', it will not affect the ongoing recruitment for filling vacant posts of technical and non-technical posts announced in 2018. The process of recruiting 64,317 assistant loco pilots and technicians had already been completed. The Indian Railway had started dispatching appointment letters. However, recruitment exams for 35,208 non-technical posts will be conducted after normalisation of the situation following the Covid-19 crisis. "We held the protest on the occasion of August Revolution. The Modi government wants to reduce 50 percent employee strength of Indian Railways. Government is reluctant to re-launch the Liberalized

Active Retirement Scheme for Guaranteed Employment for Safety Staff," said Tanmay

Roy, division secretary of AILRSA.

While Indian Railways have set a timeline for trains to run with the help of the private sector, the first set of private trains will arrive in 2023. It will have 12 trains.