The AIRF during its centenary convention held in New Delhi last month has called for railway patrolling personnel be allowed to check for a maximum of 12 km daily of track and provided with ‘Rakshak’ equipment and two pairs of shoes annually for track maintainers.
It wanted running staff to be extended to the ticket-checking staff, including payment of running allowance as already recommended by the committee constituted by the Railway Board. The benefit of hospital patient care allowance should be extended to all the leftover categories of the staff working in the railway hospitals.
Risk and hard duty allowance should be paid to all the safety categories of the staff, based on their risk and responsibilities and improve its existing rates. Women employees should be provided with basic facilities like separate washrooms, changing rooms, creche etc.
There should be improvement of the existing railway accommodation and colonies even while constructing new ones for different categories of staff. Adequate and separate resting facilities should be provided to train escorting staff at the terminal station with earmarked berths in trains.
Ensure recruitment of specialist doctors and paramedical staff as per requirement in railway hospitals and health units, besides providing testing equipment, machines, medicines and other required items. The federation has also called for convening the cadre restructuring committee for the upgradation of various categories of staff, reviewing the group insurance scheme by enhancing risk value to ₹3 lakh, 6 lakh and 12 lakh, respectively and so on.
The organisation seeking a speedy resolution has regretted that despite harmony prevailing over the Indian Railways for the last five decades, non-finalisation of the pending issues has been causing “serious disappointment” and “discontentment” among the rank and file, according to SCRMU general secretary Ch. Sankara Rao..
