Loco pilots pitch for less duty hours; hold protest

Hyderabad: Many loco pilots of Hyderabad and Secunderabad divisions staged a demonstration on Tuesday demanding 16 and a half hours of periodical rest and the limiting of consecutive night duty to two days as recommended by high-level committees.

Protestors pointed out the High Power Committee appointed that the running staff should be given a periodical rest of 16 and a half hours, that is, 40 hours, 4 times in a month. Along with this, the committee recommended reducing the consecutive night duty. “But it was not implemented; we are still forced to work 12, 16, and 20 hours at a stretch, endangering the safety of the train operations. The railway should reduce the stay away from headquarters to 48 hours, pending further reduction to 36 hours as well,” the protestors said.

Sainath, a loco pilot said, “The railways are neither hiring more loco pilots nor have they implemented the 10-hour duty rule. The root cause of most of the problems faced by the running staff is the non-filling up of vacancies in almost all categories. The train services have increased manifold, and at present there are many varieties of special trains, which are not taken into account when calculating the vacancies of running staff. Despite that, there are nearly 18,799 vacancies for assistance loco pilots across Indian Railways, including in the South Central Railways. Due to this, the physical and mental health of running staff has deteriorated drastically.

They have lost their family life, as well as their social life." "We are requesting the concerned officials to fill the vacant post of the loco pilots, as working for long hours is becoming too hectic for us. We have submitted representations many times regarding working hours, but it all fell on deaf ears. It will be better if South Central Railway solves our pleas soon," said Jilani Basha, member of the All India Loco Running Satff Association.