The All India Railway Engineers’ Federation (AIREF) has once again resented the Railway Board’s role for not paying any heed to their demands even after getting instructions from Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in this regard.
The AIREF has been demanding before the Board for decades to accord justice to about 80,000 railway engineers, who directly shoulder safe movement of more than 2 crores passengers daily. On the request of the AIREF, 32 MPs belonging to different parties requested the PM to give an appointment to directly hear grievances form federation members. However, the PMO forwarded that request to the Railway Board advising to take appropriate action. After a discussion with AIREF members, the then Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu advised the Board to constitute a committee with representatives from the AIREF. Though the formality was started immediately, the Board dropped the proposal after Prabhu’s resignation and wrote to the PMO mentioning that it was inable to accept demands.
Thereafter, according to East Coast Railways Engineers’ Association president Bobin Mohanty, the federation again requested the Prime Minister in November last year to give his appointment. But the PMO again redirected that representation to the Railway Board.
This time, the Board too did not take any action.
While forwarding the memorandum to the Board in December, the PMO had instructed it to intimate to it and the AIRF about the action taken.
After 3 months, when the AIREF sought about the status of the memorandum through RTI, the Board informed that it has decided to not take any action as initiated earlier and not to reply to the AIREF or the PMO.
“Now, 80,000 railway engineers have lost hope to get justice from the Prime Minister and the Railway Board,” lamented Mohanty.
He informed that the AIREF has once again requested the Prime Minister for appointment instead of forwarding the request to the Board.