Shramik Congress Union stages protest

Visakhapatnam: Representatives of East Coast Railway Shramik Congress Union staged a protest here on Monday seeking solutions to their problems. Earlier, they submitted a memorandum to the chairman of the railway board through the Divisional Railway Manager of East Coast Railway.

Speaking on the occasion, divisional coordinator of the congress TV Mouli demanded the railway board to rectify the deficiencies in the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) for ensuring guaranteed pensioners benefits to every employee. He appealed to the authorities to reduce the commutation of the pension period from 15 to 11 years.

Further, the union leaders appealed to the board to withdraw the proposal of privatisation of railway production units. Abolish 12 hours duty and introduce eight hours duty roster in the railways instead, they demanded.The representatives raised slogans during the protest and demanded an immediate action to resolve their problems, including implementation of time bound promotion to all staff as per availability of the vacancies. They also demanded creation of posts for employees for the new assets, lines and units.

Also, the congress representatives demanded the railway board to remove the ban on creation of posts in railways and ensure creation of new posts. Implementation of yardsticks/norms by the railway board, release of frozen DA and DR for the periods from January 2020 to June 2021, suspension of the triangular working system of running staff of East Coast Railway formed part of their demands.