Station masters plan 2-day nationwide strike

PUNE, Sept 17: Nearly 32,000 Station masters in the country have decided to go on a nationwide strike to insist on their seven-point charter of demands which includes running allowance for station masters, filling up of vacancies and an end to the curtailment of staff strength. The aim is to cause mass disruption of rail traffic by holding up trains at various signals for two minutes, said Vinod Nair, organising secretary of the All India Station Masters’ Association.

A similar strike call was given by AISMA on August 11, last year when Southern, Central and Eastern rail traffic was thrown out of gear while the Mumbai-Pune rail system had completely collapsed. According to AISMA president BR Majumdar, the strike was to protest against the atrocities on 22 station masters who were served notices by the railway authorities on petty matters attached to the Bhusawal division. “14 cases were later withdrawn, three station masters were warned and six were censured, five cases were cancelled but the fate of eight station masters still hangs in the balance,” he said.

“U.R. Kansavi, divisional president, AISMA, attached to the Solapur division was suspended but recalled by the administration with imposition of a penalty and demotion while cases against two station masters P.H. Rupnar and B.R. Kulkarni are yet to be finalised by the railway authorities,” added media coordinator Ranjan Mukherjee.

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“The protest now is against victimisation and fulfillment of the station masters’ demands,” he said. AISMA is demanding better pay scales for station masters with an initial grade of Rs 5500-Rs 9000, stopping of interpolation in all grades, scrapping of seven continuous night duties, uniform allowance instead of stitched uniforms and a reduction in workload from 40 hours weekly for continuous roster and 30 hours weekly for intensive roster.

There are 35,000 station masters working across the country who are responsible for tackling over 10,000 trains terminating at 7,000 stations, dotted along a 63,000 km route.