Sawai Madhopur, Sep 26 (PTI) The Indian Railway S&T Maintainers’ Union (IRSTMU) has handed over a list of demands, including filling vacant posts and approving a long-pending proposal for a risk and hardship allowance, to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
The list was handed over to Vaishnaw by some of officer bearers of the union, which represents signal and telecom maintainers, during his visit to Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan on Tuesday.
“The Hon’ble minister assured us that he would look into our demands and make a positive decision. We are very hopeful about his assurances,” said Alok Chandra Prakash, general secretary, IRSTMU.
According to Prakash, the immediate demands of the union include filling vacant posts, introducing a duty roster and getting the Finance Ministry’s approval for a proposal for a risk and hardship allowance which has been pending for several months, among other things.
Rama Kant Yogi, one of the officer bearers of IRSTMU who handed over the list of demands to Vaishnaw, said that no fresh recruitment has been done in the S&T department since 2017 and during this period, the railways’ S&T infrastructure has increased significantly.
“We have humbly requested the Hon’ble minister to look into the issues of filling vacant posts and creating new posts,” Yogi said.
Railway Board Chairman and CEO Satish Kumar recently wrote to the Finance Ministry, requesting the creation of new non-gazetted posts due to a significant increase in the assets of the railways in the last five years.
Underlining the increase in the assets of the signal department, Kumar said that there has been a 269 per cent increase in track circuits, 28 per cent in signals and 46 per cent in automatic signalling in the last five years.
“Due to an increase in assets, signal maintainers are under huge pressure to serve in their respective areas,” IRSTMU general secretary Prakash said.
“A duty roster is another crucial demand as most of our people are working round the clock. It not only compromises their professional output but is also detrimental to their health,” he said.
On its demand for a risk and hardship allowance, the IRSTMU recently wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to ask the Finance Ministry to approve the proposal for it.
“The Railway Board merged the post of member (S&T) with that of member (Infrastructure), which we opposed. We want that the member (S&T) post should be brought back…,” Prakash said.
“We have also demanded that the post of AM (Signal) should also be brought back to the Railway Board as it was redesignated as Special DG (Signal) on July 1, 2023, and sent to Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO), Lucknow,” he said. PTI JP DIV DIV
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