Station masters hold protest outside DRM office: Demand filling up of vacant posts; changing rooms, toilets for women station masters, among others

A total of 68 divisions and 16 railway zones participated in the protest across the country. Dinesh Kamble, Shivajinagar station master, said one SM in stations across Pune division has to oversee operations of around 180 trains daily. “Pune junction is the busiest station under Pune division; there is a dire need for additional SMs to share the workload,” he said.

Purushottam Singh, divisional secretary of AISMA and SM of Hadapsar station, said, “There is a need for supervisors and additional SMs in each station to ease the burden on the SM and avoid accidents.”

The station masters also demanded that allowances be granted without a pay ceiling of Rs 43,600 and that financial upgradation be in line with the Modified Assured Career Progression Scheme (MACPS), effective from January 2016.

According to last year’s data, there were 355 sanctioned posts of SM for 55 locations under Pune division, of which 306 posts have been filled, leaving 49 vacant. Other demands include increasing night allowances, providing safety and stress allowances, and separate changing rooms for women SMs.

Stations like Chinchwad, Pune, Hadapsar and Shivajinagar don’t have toilets for women staff. Shobha Bhagat, station master of Chinchwad railway station, said, “We cannot come to work wearing uniforms from home, so we need changing rooms. I have been demanding this since 2009; now there are around eight women SMs in Pune division,” she said.