Report by Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent
The All India Guards Council (AIGC) at its Central Working Committee meeting, has decided to dharnas on 11 September in front of various railway offices and establishments to oppose the Railway Board’s decision to replace iron trunks with trolley bags.
Guards and loco pilots keep iron trunks (also called line boxes) weighing over 20 kg in the engine or guard cabin containing railway norms, various equipment, and their personal belongings.
Shri D Biswas, General Secretary, AIGC said that the Delhi High Court directed the Ministry of Railways to reply to all earlier representations of the AIGC on the issue and not to withdraw the line boxes until all the representations are disposed of. “But unfortunately, the various Divisions/Zones are going to eliminate the line boxes which will be deemed as “Contempt of Court”,” he said.
The Railway Board initiated this move in 2006. However, it remained pending for 11 years due to stiff opposition from loco pilots and guards.
In 2018, the Railway Board pushed the trolley bag scheme into two zones – Northern Railway and South Central Railway – for trial despite opposition of guards. After the various trials, it issued a final order on February 21, 2022, for implementation of trolley bags.
The AIGC challenged this order at various legal fora, including the Central Administrative Tribunal’s (CAT) Principal Bench at New Delhi, forcing the railways to put it on hold.
The CAT, on February 8, 2024, refused to grant any relief to the AIGC and said it would not interfere with the Railway Ministry’s order paving the way for the Board to implement its decision.
Following the CAT’s order, the Railway Board on 19 July issued letters to all the zones asking them to start providing trolley bags to loco pilots and guards. Meanwhile, the AIGC challenged the CAT’s order in the Delhi High Court.
The Delhi High Court in its order dated August 13, asked the Railways to decide the AIGC’s “representations within four weeks from the receipt of this order without getting influenced by the order dated 08.02.2024 passed by the learned Central Administrative Tribunal.”
Now, the Railway Ministry has begun replacing iron trunks with trolley bags without deciding on AIGC’s representations.
AIGC believes that the replacement by trolley bags jeopardises the safety of train operations. The concern of the guards is that they have to carry detonators composed of potassium chlorate, sulphur, sand, binder and neutralizer issued by the Ordnance Factory Board to Indian Railways for specific purposes during train operations. They often they have to leave their cabin and come out of it during train operations at many isolated locations.
“In such a situation, these detonators are safe in the iron trunk which is locked and difficult to carry. However, it is easy to take away the carry bags with detonators from the Guard’s cabin,” said Shri SP Singh, former general secretary of the AIGC.