Engineers of the East Coast Railway staged a dharna in front of General Manager office here on Wednesday under the banner of All India Railway Engineers’ Federation (AIREF) to protest the report submitted by 7th Central Pay Commission (7CPC).
“Due to faulty policy made by the Railways and erroneous report given by 7th CPC, the railway engineers have to suffer a lot,” said All India Railway Engineers Federation (AIREF) president Sanjib Kumar.
The 7th CPC has ignored all the factors i.e. qualification, duties and responsibilities. CPC has upgraded the pay structures of non-core, non-technical and non safety categories than railway engineers, Kumar said, warning that it would affect seriously the dream project of Prime Minister to run bullet trains in future.
The Chairman has assured to give justice by giving Group-B status and good pay structures with perks. But now, we found that the commission has betrayed us. We had a good faith because of commitments given by the commission constituted with Supreme Court Justice and learned persons, he said.
ECoREA president Bobin Mohanty told the recommendations of 7th CPC are against railway engineers. It is the worst ever report given by any pay commission among seven pay commissions, h maintained.
“Due to wrong policies, many experienced engineers have left Railways and young talented engineers do not prefer to join Railways. It will affect seriously the safety & economy of Railways,” said ECoREA general secretary BP Dash.
The ECoREA submitted a memorandum of 28 demands including Group-B to all railway engineers, recognition to AIREF, Grade pay Rs 5,400 (PB-3) to Junior Engineers and Rs 6,600 (PB-3) to Senior Section Engineers, 30 per cent technical allowances, time-bound promotions, etc. Besides, dharna was also held at Sambalpur, Khurda Road, Visakhapatnam and headquarters of divisions of East Coast Railway.