The railway engineers play a vital role in construction of railway projects, and they should be given social justice, said MP Bhartruhari Mahtab at a seminar organised by the East Coast Railway Engineers’ Association (ECoREA) here on Sunday.
The seminar was organised on integrated growth through ECoR- Odisha Government partnership at the 8th annual general meeting of the ECoREA.
Mahatab said the State Government is committed for development of railway network in the State. The Railways should give justice to its engineers who play key roles in effecting development. He suggested to the railway engineers to file application before the Parliament Committee regarding their demands. He assured to raise the demands in the Parliament.
Among other guests, MP Nagendra Kumar Pradhan said he has already raised their demands twice in the Parliament and though the Railways Minister has given replies, yet some facts remained hidden. MP Balabhadra Majhi, who is a member of the Railway Standing Committee, said he would try to include their demands in the forthcoming agenda of the committee and accord justice to them. ECoREA general secretary BP Dash welcomed the guests and said the Odisha State Government and the Railway Board have signed three MoUs for the projects, Khordha Road-Balangir, Jeypore-Malkangiri and Jeypore-Nawarangpur.
Association president Bobin Mohanty submitted a proposal before the MPs for construction of a new line between Puri and Konark to attract tourists and to connect Jajpur Road with Dhamra Port and Dhamra Port with Paradip Port to export minerals.
All India Railway Engineers’ Federation (AIREF) president Sanjib Kumar terming engineers as the architects of the railway development lamented that they are still neglected by the Union Government. “While their counterparts in other Government departments have been given Group B status, the railway engineers are working in Croup C. It is loss of social status for them,” lamented Kumar. He demanded that the railway engineers be given Group B status soon. More than 300 engineers from the ECoR and other railway zones attended the meeting.