Hyderabad: The June 17 Kanchenjunga Express accident that claimed nine lives and left 41 others injured, has once again highlighted a serious issue of loco pilots being forced to work long hours, with a Member of Parliament alleging that the Railway Ministry was not interested in fixing this issue despite several letters and memorandums submitted to it.
In an exclusive chat with ETV Bharat, Tiruvallur MP Sasikanth Senthil said it was “forced error” that led to such train accidents since the railway board and the central government have not been listening to their employees, especially the loco pilots.
“For quite some time, the loco pilots have been requesting the government to allow their statutory rest period. Every loco pilot, after consecutive two night duties, is allowed to rest for a day. That is how they recuperate and regain their mental and physical energy. But these people have not been allowed to take this mandatory rest and have been assigned continuous duties,” Senthil said.
He claimed it was the fourth consecutive day of duty for the loco-pilot who rammed his goods train behind the Kanchenjunga express.
“Such errors have happened from drivers because of this forced duty. It is a very sad state of affairs that the Narendra Modi government is not looking into this matter and not understanding the seriousness of this issue,” the Lok Sabha MP said.
The issue of not being allowed to take proper rest in between their shifts has been raised at several forums by both politicians and the amalgam representing the loco-pilots.
“The All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA) has submitted several memorandums. Rajya Sabha MP Dr John Britas recently wrote a letter to the Union Railway Ministry highlighting this issue. Another Kerala minister has also written to the Ministry. Despite it being flagged from so many quarters, the ministry has not shown any interest in rectifying this,” Senthil said.
In his letter to Railway ministry dated June 13, four days before the Kanchenjunga Express accident, Dr Britas had pointed out how various committees, including a recent high-power committee, have studied the working conditions of the locomotive running staff and recommended that they should not be mandated to work more than two consecutive nights.
Following repeated appeals to the Southern Railway authorities by staff and their representative associations, which yielded no response, the AILRSA commenced their protest on June 1. During this protest, staff members started to avail their weekly rest without disrupting train services.
Instead of addressing the demands raised by the loco running staff, Southern Railway resorted to retaliatory measures such as suspensions, transfers, and issuance of penalty memos against AILRSA members, aggravating the situation further.
“When loco-pilots started availing their weekly rest, the southern Railway started suspending them. It is a serious matter in my opinion. I don't understand the logic behind making people work like this,” Senthil said.
At least 18 locomotive pilots have been suspended, 16 subjected to administrative transfers, 17 major penalty chargesheets issued, along with about a hundred minor penalty chargesheets issued from June 1, 2024 onwards.
Asked about loco-pilots highlighting why enough rest and recuperation was needed to run Vande Bharat Express trains at their max speed, Senthil said: “When you have fatigue, your reaction time is not as prompt. If you miss a signal, it is gone already. So in a way, Vande Bharat trains are vulnerable to serious accidents”.
Senthil called it “illegal” on part of the central government to not allow the statutory rest period.
“If the loco association is saying and the ministry is also calling it a human error, something must be causing this human error. In my opinion, it is this fatigue. It is a huge crisis. Many accidents that have taken place in the recent past are ramming of trains. We used to hear of derailments, but ramming of trains signifies lack of concentration which is directly related to this fatigue issue,” he said.
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