Ratlam (Madhya Pradesh): General secretary of the National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR) M Raghavaiah, on Tuesday, stressed the need for increasing the Railway’s share in freight transportation of the country for which he said he had submitted suggestions to the new railway minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, in July after he took over. Veteran trade union leader Raghavaiah reached here to attend the meeting of the central working committee of the Western Railway Majdoor Sangh (WRMS).
While taking to reporters, Raghavaiah said that the present share of the Indian Railways in the country’s freight transportation was around 20%, which could be increased. When asked about his suggestion to railway minister Vaishnaw in this regard, he said it included creating a special cell at the divisional headquarters-level in each rail division of the Indian Railways and to adopt strategy according to the requirements of the particular divisional area to attract more freight traffic. Goods trains operations and related technical aspects also needed a fresh look, he suggested.
Expressing concern over the pending demands of railway employees, Raghavaiah said that, during the two waves of the Covid-19 pandemic, railway employees had worked hard and more than 3,000 railway employees had lost their lives during this period, but the demand for payment of ex gratia to their families had not yet been accepted. He demanded that the old pension scheme should be again brought in place of the new one. The attempts to corporatise railway production units and trains must be stopped, he said, and the pending demands of railway employees must be accepted without delay. He demanded that dialogue on every issue of the Railways must be held with the railway employees’ representatives. He claimed that railway employees had been putting in their best to give the best results which had made possible the highest-ever freight movement of 1,233 metric tonnes on the Indian Railways, production of 4333 LHB coaches and so forth during the financial year 2020-’21.
WRMS president Sharif Khan Pathan, executive general secretary RG Kabar, executive president Ajay Singh, divisional secretary BK Garg, president Rafiq Mansuri, assistant secretary Deepak Bhardwaj and media-in-charge Gaurav Dubey were also present.
