35,000 station masters of different rail divisions gear up to go on leave on May 31

Come May 31, nearly 35,000 station masters belonging to different zones of the Railways, will go on a mass leave in support of their various long-pending demands. The protesting station masters will be on leave.

Kolkata:Come May 31, nearly 35,000 station masters belonging to different zones of the railways, will go on a mass leave in support of their various long-pending demands. The protesting station masters will be on leave. However, these railway employees were urging the railway higher-ups to pay heed to their various pending demands. But, their issues were not resolved. Hence, 35,000 station masters will stage a protest on May 31, stated the All India Station Masters' Association in a statement.

The 35,000 station masters going on mass leave may affect the rail traffic across the country in a big way. The railway employees have threatened to resort to intensifying stir if their demands were not met. "Our demands were pending with the Union government since 2020. We wrote a letter to the chairman of the railway board regarding our various unresolved issues but it didn't materialize,” zonal joint secretary of the organization, Sanjeev Jaiswal, told ETV Bharat.

Read:Railways to conduct techno-economic feasibility study of stations

“So, we are waiting for the response from the railway higher-ups in connection with our demands by May 31. If not resolved by then, we will go on strike from midnight on May 31, till the fulfilling of our demands," Jaiswal added. “Currently, more than 7,000 vacancies for the post of station masters are lying vacant in different divisions of the railways. The shortage of manpower has put pressure on the rest of the railway employees. Besides, we are supposed to get Rs 4,000 as night duty allowances and it was not given to us since the lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic,” he added. Also opposing the government’s move to privatise railways, the Station Masters' Association demanded that they be given the benefit of the Modified SEO Career Progression Scheme (MACP) with effect from 01.01.2016 instead of 16.02.2018.