Report of Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent
On 15th October 2024, the Railway Board, under the Ministry of Railways, Government of India, issued a circular addressed to all General Managers of the Zonal Railways and Production Units, that they can reengage retired staff against vacant posts on contractual basis. In this circular as there is no exclusion of any category, it means even in the critical safety categories contractual appointments can be made. The circular is reproduced below.
This circular comes in the backdrop of the huge number of vacancies in the Indian Railways in all departments, including the safety category. There are nearly 2 lakh vacancies in the safety category alone. All the trade unions in the Indian Railways have long been demanding and agitating that the Indian Railways should recruit new staff for these posts keeping in mind the need of safe running of trains and to reduce the burden on the existing staff who are extremely overburdened due to vacancies in different categories.
All India Forum Against Privatisation (AIFAP) has been regularly highlighting the struggles of different categories of Rail Workers. KEC has been repeatedly writing about the difficulties faced by Loco Running Staff, Station Managers, Train Controllers, Track Maintainers, Signal and Telecommunications Maintainers, Pointsmen, etc.
This circular also comes in the background of the increasing number of train accidents including head-on collisions, derailments, etc, one of the main reasons for which is the shortage of required manpower.
Instead of addressing the real issues facing the Indian Railways, there is an increasing tendency to blame the accidents on “sabotage” even before an official enquiry has submitted its report or else blame the junior level railway staff such as loco pilots, train managers, S&T Maintainers etc and dismiss them from duty under draconian rules such as D&AR 14/II.
The higher authorities in the Indian Railways need to take responsibility for the severe shortage of staff that has been cumulatively increasing and is one of the main reasons for the increasing number of railway accidents. Re-engaging retired staff on contract basis is against the requirements of safe running of trains.
With a huge number of educated unemployed youth in our country, it is a completely anti-people move to deny these youth employment opportunities.
The higher authorities need to immediately take steps to fill all vacant positions with fresh recruitment, keeping in mind the actual vacancies, the number of persons retiring in the coming years, the increasing traffic density of both passenger and goods trains and laying of new tracks and hence the need to provide manpower for this, the need to provide a reliever in case of absence by staff, etc.
Upload.Engagement of retired staff