RAILWAY SAMACHAR

MASS CASUAL LEAVE

NOTICE BY CONTROLLERS

OF INDIAN RAILWAYS

Mumbai, India: The All India Train Controllers’ Association (AITCA) bearing Registration No. 17/9857-6/12/2002 (Labour Act 1926) is a pan-India association of the Control Cadre of the Indian Railways. We, the National Body of AITCA hereby would like to declare that we are going on a Mass Casual Leave Programme on the 1^st of May, 2010 which also is the International Labour Day. On this day, our entire Control Cadre, all over India, in all the divisions shall go on a pre-notified leave, for redressal of their long pending genuine grievances and demands like pay anomalies, filling up of vacancies, payment of stress allowance, etc.

Control Cadre is the nerve centre of train operations and are the eyes, ears and brain of the railways administration. We work day and night tirelessly all the 365 days in a year to ensure Mail/Express trains run to time and freight trains get optimum paths. With meagre staff strength of about 2600 all over India we run more than 16,000 trains a day. In short we control the asset management of Indian Railways in a dynamic situation round the clock incessantly moving trains on its entire network and are directly responsible for the turnaround of Railways as a profit making organisation. Drivers, Guards, Station Masters and all Train operation staff work under the Control Cadre and run train as per the guidance and instructions of the Controller. Their strength remains same or stands reduced over the last 50 years even though there is a massive increase in the number of Trains as well as Top Level Management.

This step shall nearly paralyse the working of the Indian Railways for 24 hours, nation- wide since the staff that is on duty on the 30^th night shall receive no relief staff to continue the work and shall stop working after his stipulated working hours.

We have been asking for some very basic demands through our memorandums to all Top Level Administration as well as the present and past Minister of Railways. We also had a meeting with the Centrally Appointed Sixth Pay Commission Panel headed by Justice Srikrishna. All these formal efforts have fallen on deaf ears.

Our demands are as under

Better Pay Scale:

Consequent to the merger of grades by various pay commissions without taking into considerations the work load and responsibilities of the various cadres has created disparity and brought the feeder cadres on the controller on par with control cadre.

Stress Allowance:

The hall mark of a controller is to remain cool collective and with utmost concentration through out the entire stretch of his duty and take split second multiple decisions and yet not falter. His job has become all the more challenging and strenuous due to the rapid growth in traffic and differential speeds of various trains. Due to the introduction of more and more new trains/specials all the sections have become over saturated and require extraordinary skill and concentration to manure the freight trains. The work load and stress on the controller has increased manifold and as the result of this more than 75% of the cadre is suffering from serious ailments like hypertension, diabetic etc. Hence the Association demands adequate compensation by way of stress allowance at 30% of the basic pay.

Such an allowance is received by another cadre which can be called as our contemporaries in the Air Traffic, the Air Traffic Controllers. They receive such an allowance to control the Air Traffic which is more technologically advanced with far lesser traffic than compared to rail traffic, whereas we who control the Train Traffic are denied such an allowance.

Filling up of vacancies:

Controllers work in shifts round the clock in a highly stressful environment and against nature. To maintain vacancies in such a sensitive and essential cadre will only prove counter productive and it will have a direct bearing on the health of the controller and above all safety will stand compromised. Though time and again various enquiry committees have stressed the need to have optimum man power in the essential cadres such as section controllers, Station Masters, Running Staff etc., the administration has not felt any urgency to fill up the vacancies.

At present, there are around 25% vacancies in control cadre. This has put added pressure on the controllers who are already under stress. Hence the Association demands the immediate filling up of vacancies.

Intensive Roster with calendar day Rest:

RLT Award, 1969 popularly known as Justice N.M. Miabhoy Commission has stressed the need to classify the control cadre as intensive and recommended its implementation. Yet the Railway Administration has not initiated any steps to classify the control cadre as intensive though the traffic since than has increased tremendously. Hence, the demand for classification of the entire control cadre as intensive stands justified.

The controllers work all 365 days with out a calendar day rest. He is deprived of family/social life. Hence in the present state of civilization and life style it is shameful to plead for the grant of weekly rest which should have been made mandatory by the administration themselves.

Increase in Leave Reserve:

Due to tremendous growth of traffic the work load and pressure on the controllers has increased manifold and as a fallout of which many controllers have contracted stress related diseases. To off set this, adequate rest and leave should be given, for which the existing 18% of leave reserve is inadequate and needs to be increased to 30% percent.

Brake down Allowance:

More than the field staff the controller is the only one who is over stressed during an accident. He needs to regulate traffic, arrange for transport of the injured and dead, order brake down special for relief and restoration work. Controller is the one who orders the Break Down special and monitors the movement from the time of departure to the time it reaches the spot. He ensures a clear passage for its speedy movement to the spot. The controller is in constant touch with the field staff at the spot ensuring the progress of restoration work apart from maintaining the traffic in the unaffected section. The anxiety and tension the controller undergoes cannot be explained in words. Yet, he is deprived of Brake Down allowance.

Mike allowance:

Controllers use the mike through out the entire stretch of their duty, shouting out instructions nonstop to field staff. The control is continuously engaged in communication with the field staff which is energy sapping. Even the Announcer and the Station Masters who uses pre recorded gadgets for making announcement are paid mike allowance and why not we the Controllers?

Exclusive department for control cadre:

As control cadre acts as a liaison between the management and the field staff to translate the policies of the administration into reality, it should be treated as a special cadre and kept under a separate department as is the case of Air Traffic Controllers. The Control cadre with its vast working experience and practical knowledge can take the Operations to a much higher level of productivity and safety.

One Boss:

In the years gone by the Control Cadre was answerable to only one official and used to take instructions from him alone. At that time the Rail Traffic was also less. But as of today, with such a drastic increase in Rail Traffic and Officer Cadre, rather than the Controllers being answerable to one boss, the Deputies have to give position to seven to eight officers and each one of them issues instructions conflicting the other causing confusion in the minds of a controller who is already in an intense job. Even Officers of CFTM level and other HQ level Officers takes position directly from DY’s and issues instructions directly to him.

Also, the Deputy Controller for whom time is as important as someone’s life is, wastes almost two hours giving positions to all these officers. The Officers are also very unpunctual in taking positions and often call for them when the Deputy Controller has to sign off duty compelling him to wait for another hour or so. This results in intense fatigue to the already tired controller, who puts in about 9-10 hrs of duty and it also slows down the performance level thereby severely affecting the overall performance of Indian Railways.

Secondly when all the positions are available on COIS / FOIS why should there be a duplicity of work by way of written and oral positions as well. This will give the Controller time for better planning and monitoring of the Trains which is the basic job of the Controller and not give position for hours together as a Telephone clerk, and then prepare punctuality reports to please the Bosses.

We hereby as an entire cadre would appreciate if the Fourth Pillar of Democracy, our broadcast and print media friends help us by being our voice and reach out to the administration, in particular and the masses, in general and they try and understand our apathy and plight and also understand why we are forced to take such an extreme form of protest.