The Railway Board has realised that technology is not the only solution to improve safety, said All India Railway Engineers Federation (AIREF) president Sanjib Kumar at a meeting of office- bearers of East Coast Railway Engineers Association (ECoREA) here on Wednesday.
Kumar clarified that Railway Board has issued instructions to all General Managers of zonal railways on January 30, 2017 not to permit supervisors (Revised designation as railway engineers) with grade pay of Rs 4,200 and above to be office-bearers of trade unions so that, they could put more attention to the safety.
He further said railway engineers are the front end managers and how safety can be achieved when managers are clubbed with their workmen in trade unions. Then there is no need of different associations in Group-A and Group-B cadres at officers’ level which are being maintained at present and all from Chairman of Railway Board to workmen should be clubbed in one union. Due to faulty decisions of Railway Board railway safety is pushed towards danger.
ECoREA president Bobin Mohanty said “Off late, though not fully, yet Railway Board has implemented recommendation of the Khanna Committee (1998) partially.” He said that Railway Safety Review Committee headed by Justice HR Khanna was formed to give recommendations to improve safety in 1998. Though they have been demanding to implement the committee’s recommendations since then, the Railway Board was overlooking it, but finally after 19 years, the board has started to implement it slowly.
Justifying the recommendation given by Justice Khanna, general secretary of ECoREA general secretary BP Dash said the Task Force on Safety consisting five top level officers of different zones recommended implementing the recommendations of Khanna Committee. Justice Khanna in his report clearly mentioned that the Kunzru, Wanchoo and Sikhri recommended debarring supervisors (engineers) from trade unions and they also strongly endorsed and repeat the recommendation.
Report also discussed that all zonal railways except one had endorsed the same view. Dash rationalised that safety is being looked after by zones and not by Railway Board but it is unfortunate that the board has to issue instructions on safety aspect neglecting views of zones.
The ECoREA informed that delegates of engineers federation led by Sanjib Kumar and Nagesh Yadav had met Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu at New Delhi recently and handed over memorandum to him demanding implementation of recommendations of task force at the earliest. The Minister has assured them that he is on the job already.
However, the ECoREA members were displeased over the fact that when AIREF, sole representative of railway engineers is supporting Railway Board’s decision on engineers not to be office-bearers of trade unions then how these trade unions are protesting this instruction neglecting safety IJ They condemned it strongly and appealed to the trade unions to support the administration to improve safety so that railways could regain the faith of common man and restore its credibility.