36 hours’ fast by Loco Pilots of Indian Railways on 20th& 21st February 2025
The entire Loco Pilots of Indian Railways decided to observe Fast for 36 hours from 7am on 20.2.2025 to 7pm on 21.2.2025 in protest against the step-motherly attitude of the Ministry of Railway in resolving the grievances of Loco Pilots.
1).Limit Duty hours to 6 hours for express/ Passenger trains and 8 hours for goods trains
It may be seen that normally 8 hours duty at a stretch is prescribed for entire Railway employees, but in the case of Loco Pilot the prescribed duty at a stretch stands at 11 hours. The various high power committees recommended to reduce the duty hours of Loco Pilot to ensure safety in train operation. But still the Ministry of Railway has not heeded. In practice the Loco Pilot, especially in Goods trains, are forced to perform duty for 12 to 20 hours continuously.
The recommendation of the Parliament Standing Committee to reduce the duty hours of Loco Pilot to 8hrs also not been heeded.
The Railway Servants (working hours and period of rest) Rules 2005, prescribing a maximum duty hours of 10 hours at a stretch, is not being adhered to by the Railways.
Limit consecutive night duties to two.
Considering the safety in train operation, the High Power Committee on duty hours and rest periods- 2016 recommended to reduce the continuous night duty to two nights, thisl recommendation also not been heeded by Railways. In spite of several accidents took place due to drowsiness of crew, the Railway prescribe 4 continuous night duty for Loco Pilot. It may also be noted that the entire workforce in Railway are detailed for only one night duty at a time.
Allow weekly rest along with 16 hours daily rest.
The entire Railway workers are allowed with a weekly rest of 30 hours in addition to the 16 hours daily rest. All Railway workers allowed with 40 hours to 64 hours weekly
off, the Loco Pilot are being allowed with a 30 hours weekly rest including the 16 hours daily rest. In fact the Loco Pilot weekly rest reduced to 14 hours.
The Dy. Chief Labour Commissioner (central), who is the competent authority to interpret Rules, declared that the Loco Pilot should be allowed 30 hours weekly rest in addition to 16hours daily rest . This decision of the Chief Labour Commissioner has upheld by the High Court of karnataka.
But still the Railway not implemented this order. When all other staff are allowed with 30 hours of weekly rest in addition to 16 hrs daily rest, the Loco Pilot are being denied with 30hours weekly rest in addition to 16 hours daily rest.
Excessive accumulated fatigue due to inadequate weekly rest to Loco Pilots is reflecting in their concentration in operating trains. Many train accident occurred on this account alone.
Limit out station stay to 36 hours.
When all Railway Staff daily reach to their family, we the Loco Pilots reach their home once in 3 or 4 days after a spell of duty. The pilots made several request to the Railway Board to bring back them home at least within 36 hours of stay at out stations. Many Loco Pilot felt that the frequent absence from home for 3 to 4 day for entire service of 30 to 35 years, shattered their family life, adversely affected their children’s education and wellbeing.
Increase running allowance by 25% from 01/01/24, in par with 25% increase in travelling allowance.
As per the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission all allowances were enhanced by 25% when Dearness relief reached 50%, to entire Central Government employees, including the Railway Workers with effect from I.1.2024. The kilometerage allowance of Loco Pilots is not been enhanced so far.
Allow 70% income tax exemption for running allowance.
According to the Income tax Rules, the Travelling/Daily allowance of Govt employees are exempted for income Tax. 70% of kilometerage allowance of Loco Pilots is considered as Travelling/Daily allowance, but still a meagre amount is exempted for income tax and thus income tax is deducted for the TA too.
Fill up all vacancies of loco pilots & other safety categories.
The total sanctioned workforce in Railway is about 14 Lakhs, but 3, 20,000 posts are vacant. In the case of Loco Pilot the sanctioned strength is 1,32,000 .The number of posts vacant is 22,000. This acute shortage of Loco Pilot has serious repercussion in train operation. Even Loco Pilot who are ill are forced to work train. They are denied with leave even for urgent needs. Weekly rests are being denied for months. The Loco Pilots are over fatigued, with sleep deprivation to the extend to commit accident.
Due to sustained agitation by Loco Pilots and on account of raising these shortage of staff by various Members of Parliament in the floor of parliament, the Railway is
compelled recruit Loco pilots through Railway Recruitment Board. Notification for filling 5699 Loco Pilot were issued in January 2024 vide CEN 01/2024. We pointed out the inadequacy of the number, the Railway Recruitment Board, vide a notification dated 4.7.2024 raised the notified vacancy from 5699 to 18,799. But the process of selection by RRB is moving in Snail’s pace. Even after 8 months is over from the notification dated 4.7 .2024, no examination of the candidate took place so far. Now the vacant post of Loco Pilot further increased to 25,000 on account of retirement.
Scrap NPS/ UPS, restore OPS
The draft rules and notification regarding the Unified Pension Scheme does not match to the declaration made by the government. It does not guarantee 50% of pay as pension as the 50 % pension is guaranteed only if the individual corpus become equal to the bench mark corpus. The formula for fixing the benchmark corpus is not defined and hence it is impossible to make the option by individual employee as demanded by the draft rules. Hence, we demand to restore the OPS.
These are few of the area of grievances where Loco Pilots are differently treaded adversely.
We represented the grievances to Hon. Minster for Railway by a delegate led by Sri Rahul Gandhi, Hon. Leader of opposition in the month of July 2024. The Hon. Minster for Railway responded and immediately constituted two High level Committee in july 2024 to study the grievances of Loco Pilot and submit recommendation with in one month, to resolve the grievances. But to our dismay no report or recommendation submitted by the two High level Committee so far. It is our experience that whenever staff agitate demanding to resolve the grievances, the Ministry of Railway cunningly constituted such Committees to silence the workers, with a deliberate intention not to resolve the grievances.
Under these circumstances and the continued step-motherly attitude towards Loco Pilot in resolving the grievances, we find no alternative but to express our protest in the Gandhian way to be in Fast for 36 hours by entire Loco Pilot, whether they are in duty on in off duty, in the hope that the Hon. Minster for Railway will take action to resolve the grievances. Said K.C.James, Secretary General, AILRSA
ARRANGEMENTS FOR MAHA KUMBH BY SOUTH EASTERN RALWAY
21st February, 2025
Despite continued heavy rush, Indian Railways is working on war footing to serve the devotees by bringing them in & taking back their home during the ongoing Mahakumbh. India Railways has undertaken a massive logistic effort to ensure the smooth travel of millions of pilgrims attending Maha Kumbh. Indian Railways has provided special trains for pilgrims during Maha Kumbh 2025.
South Eastern Railway is always ready to serve for convenience of passengers. Kumbh Special Trains are also running over Baleshwar and Jaleswar i.e Puri-Tundla-Puri Special. Moreover, four pairs of regular Trains are running over Baleshwar/Jaleswar with stoppage at Prayagraj and two pairs of Trains running over Kharagpur and one pair of train running from Santragachi with stoppage at Prayagraj.
In order to provide hassle free journey of Kumbh Mela pilgrims, apart from running of various special trains, South Eastern Railway has made elaborate arrangements of security & crowd management at various stations. Additional RPF Personnel have been deployed at Platforms, Foot Over Bridges and station to manage the crowd. Commercial and other station staff of SER are also managing the crowd and providing assistance to the passengers in need. Miking through Public Address System is going on to sensitize the passengers not to assemble un-necessarily at station premises and on platforms and also to follow safety protocols.
Security Personnel in association with the commercial staff are making a proper line up of the passengers for ensuring smooth boarding & de-boarding of passengers on arriving of trains at the platforms. RPF Personnel has been mobilized at all major stations along with CCTV surveillance to closely monitor the high movement areas of stations lime platform & FOBs. Senior Railway Officials are monitoring the situation round-the-clock to eliminate any inconvenience to the passengers.
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