RAILWAY SAMACHAR

61 Gangmen Get Back Porters' Job

Pune : In November last year, 61 porters-turned-gangmen at the Pune railway station had gone back to their old jobs, disillusioned by the work profile of gangmen though rated higher than porters in the pecking order. Now, there are 70 more gangmen who wish to follow suit, but may miss out on making the cut as they had applied two months after the deadline.

Maruti Dhore, one of them, can’t help a hint of jealousy when he speaks of the “lucky” 61. “I submitted my application for my earlier post of porter in February though the deadline was in November. The delay happened because I was afraid of losing even the job of a gangman. Now, I am not sure whether I would ever become a porter again, as the railway also requires gangmen.”

Baban Kotwal, another gangman, said, “I envy those who could become porters again. I cannot get on with the job of a gangman, as it is cumbersome and in fact inhuman. We will continue our fight to become porters again no matter what it takes.”

Additional divisional railway manager (Pune) MG Dhamangaonkar said, “Any decision regarding the porters/gangmen cannot be taken at the local level. The matter has to be sent to Mumbai, to the headquarter office of the Central Railway, for consideration of the higher authorities.”

It was in 2008 that former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav announced that porters could apply for the post of gangmen. Around 170 porters at the Pune station availed themselves of this facility to become gangmen. However, the hardships and challenges involved in the work of gangmen was a blow to them; many of them wanted to quit their jobs immediately.

“That’s when the rush to get their original jobs back began. The railway authorities finally agreed and set a deadline of November 25, 2009, to apply for the porter’s post. But only 61 people applied and they were reinstated as porters in January this year,” said Dattatray Dhore, general secretary of the Indian Railway Licensed Porters’ Association.