Report by the correspondent of Mazdoor Ekta Committee
On 18 October, the rail loco-pilots organised under AILRSA demonstrated for implementation of the old pension scheme (OPS) and in support of their long-pending demands. These demonstrations were organised in 16 zones of the Railways, all across the country. During the demonstrations, memoranda of their demands were submitted to the General Manager of each zone. Thousands of loco-pilots participated in these demonstrations all across the country, in which women rail loco-pilots also played a leading role and participated in these demonstrations in large numbers.
Simultaneously, the rail loco-pilots of Northern Railway organized a demonstration at Jantar Mantar, Delhi. Rail loco-pilots from various branches and divisions of Northern Railway participated in this demonstration. This militant demonstration continued with full enthusiasm till evening. Various leaders of AILRSA addressed the gathering.
The long-pending demands of the rail loco-pilots mainly include – cancellation of the National Pension Scheme (NPS) and Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) and restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS); ensuring return to headquarters within 36 hours; limiting the duty hours for goods trains to 8 hours and for passenger trains to 6 hours; and limiting continuous night duty to two nights.
The drivers have been struggling for a very long time to get their pending demands fulfilled. They also went on “hunger fasts” many times but the government did not pay any heed to them. The government has been continuously ignoring their demands, resulting in a lot of anger among the loco-pilots.