LUDHIANA: Irked over the policies of the railway authorities and the alleged injustice being meted out to them, members of the All-India Loco Running Staff Association sat on a 24-hour hunger strike here on Thursday.

The members protested against the fixation of grade pay of assistant train drivers in the 6th Pay Commission. They also demanded that in order to save money, the authorities were not recruiting new drivers in the railway department, due to which existing drivers had to work for more than 14 hours. The members said such things were a threat to the safety of commuters because it was the responsibility of drivers to provide safe journey to commuters. “If drivers get fatigued out due to extra working hours, it would definitely affect their health and the safety of people,” they added.

“There is need of 100 loco pilots at the city loco shed to move trains so authorities need to increase the number of drivers as well as fix the working hours up to 8 hours,’ the members said.

Meanwhile, the members also demanded that the authorities need to review their decisions because they had fixed the basic grade pay of assistant drivers on the basis of class IV employees, but assistant drivers were more qualified than class IV staff.

“The authorities should fix Rs 2,800 but they are only getting Rs 1,900. The authorities are also not giving justified travelling allowance to drivers,” they rued. Talking to the TOI, Paramjeet Singh divisional secretary All India Loco Running Staff Association said, “Drivers and assistant drivers went for a hunger strike. Those on duty have also lent support to the cause.” He demanded that the authorities should consider their demands and for that they are ready to conduct a meeting to find a possible solution to their demands. Singh said they would also stage a dharna in front of the Parliament on November
24 if the authorities don’t address their problems.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com