Nagpur: The Running Staff Branch of Central Railway Majdoor Sangh (CRMS) on Tuesday staged dharna (sit-in) agitation to highlight various problems being faced by the running staff. The day-long dharna was staged at the lobby on Platform No. 1 at the Nagpur Railway Station.
The agitation was participated by CRMS Divisional Secretary Vinod Chaturvedi, Divisional President R N Chandurkar, Organising Secretary Bhattacharya, Branch Secretary Virendra Singh, Branch President P N Tanti, D P Bundele, Sunil Katiyar, K P Singh, V Nair, M P Singh, R U Hingal, Subbaraju, V S Taksande, Manoj Rai, V V Singh, Sunil Kumar, A K Mitra, Komal N, V V Bhagat, Santosh Sharma, Harishchandra Prasad, Amit Mourya, and others in large number.
The protesting office-bearers said that hundreds of running staff posts are lying in vacant in Nagpur Division that is leading to no leaves and sufficient rest for the present staff. Despite this problem, the administration assigns work for running staff in Walgaon Power House Section and Dongargarh Section even though the Sections do not come under Nagpur Division. Similarly, in Itarsi-Amla Section, Amla-Chhindwara Section, and Narkhed-Amravati Section which fall under Nagpur Division, running staff from other Division is deployed instead of Nagpur Division itself.
The agitating running staff further said that at least 35 staffers should get rest in accordance with the number of working employees but only 21 employees are being given rest per day. Similarly, 30 percent of leave quota is fixed by Railway Board but even 10 percent of employees are denied their leaves.
The duty hours of running staff are fixed for 10 hours but the administration considers it as the minimum and forces the employees to work for 10-12 hours. Thereafter, the running staff is not brought back to headquarters but is taken to running room. This way, the running staff stays out of headquarters for 2-3 days.
The agitating running staff of Central Railway Majdoor Sangh highlighted many more problems being faced by them and urged the Nagpur Division Administration to resolve them soon or an intense agitation will be launched in the coming days.
