Railway engineers of East Coast Railway staged a bike rally from Carriage Repair Workshop, Mancheswar to Rail Sadan, Chandrasekharpur here on Wednesday under the banner of All India Railway Engineers Federation (AIREF) to protest the report submitted by 7th Central Pay Commission (7CPC).
“The zonal railway engineers associations staged demonstrations all over the country on January 20 to protest the pay commission report. After that, the demands were raised in current Parliament session by eight MPs irrespective of political parties. But it is understood that no significant action has been taken in favor of railway engineers. Hence, All India Railway Engineers Federation decided to stage demonstration again all over the country to show their frustration today,” said AIREF president Er Sanjib Kumar. He said that the main objective is to bring the attention of Railway Minister and Empowered Committee formed to review the report.
Railway Ministry launched semi-high speed Gatiman Express train from New Delhi to Agra and safe running certificate is to be issued by railway engineers daily. But unfortunately, Ministry could not understand the problems of these dedicated engineers till date, lamented Er Sanjib.
“The 7th CPC report was erroneous due to misguidance by Railway Board. Though commission was ready to upgrade engineers from Group-C to Group-B but the Board advocated against it neglecting railway safety,” alleged East Coast Railway Engineers Association (ECoREA) president Bobin Mohanty.
The ECoREA submitted a memorandum of 28 demands to General Manager for the Railway Minister.