Amid strike by some Loco Pilots, Railways is trying to ensure undisrupted service: Palakkad Division

The Palakkad Division of Southern Railway on Friday, said it was making all efforts to keep trains running in time amid a section of Loco Pilots continuing to strike from work with a demand for a 46-hour periodical rest.

The Palakkad Division of Southern Railway on Friday, said it was making all efforts to keep trains running in time amid a section of Loco Pilots continuing to strike from work with a demand for a 46-hour periodical rest.

At present, Loco Pilots either could get a rest of 5 periods of at least 22 consecutive hours or a rest of 4 periods of 30 consecutive hours in a month, as per the standing orders of the Railway Ministry. However, a section of LPs owing allegiance to ‘unrecognised’ All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA) have resorted to strike in Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram Division demanding 46 hours rest, a release said.

Stating that 47 of 240 LPs in Palakkad Division have resorted to strike as on date, the division said it was managing the show with other LPs. However, the same was causing misery to rule-abiding running staff who have to report to duty at short notice and work for extra hours to avoid inconvenience to passengers.

It said LPs had put in average working hours of 74, 70.6 and 80.7 respectively on Mail/ EXpress, Passenger and Goods trains for a 14-day period during May as against the stipulated working hours was 104 hours. Under no circumstances the running staff work beyond 10 hours of duty with monitoring from all levels to prevent the total working hours do not exceed 12 hours, including preparation and sign off.

The division alleged that the unrecognised Union, AILRSA, has a history of paralysing train services in Kerala in the past causing widespread hardships to public by refusing to attach locomotives to trains, follow the orders of working pattern, perform breath-analyser test while joining for duty etc. It said AILRSA has membership only in Railway Divisions of Kerala with very limited presence in other divisions; thus other divisions and zone were are unaffected by the unprecedented strike.

Railways being an essential service, the division would take every possible action to control such unlawful activities by a fraction of Loco Pilots, the release added.