The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Protect interests of licensed porters, court tells Railways

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 21, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Protect interests of licensed porters, court tells Railways

Special Correspondent

Plea relates to maintenance of trolley system at stations

CHENNAI: Southern Railway shall not engage any contractor or private agency for the maintenance of trolley system at stations, the Madras High Court has said.

Passing orders on a writ appeal filed by the Southern Railway Licensed Porters Union on Tuesday, a Division Bench of Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice N. Paul Vasanthakumar said: "While providing better facilities to the travelling public, equally it is the responsibility of the Government/the Railways to protect ... the interests of licensed porters."

Southern Railway had issued a tender notification calling for bids from agencies to supply and maintain self-service trolleys in 2002. The union moved the High Court, alleging that the move would affect the livelihood of hundreds of licensed porters. The present appeal was filed after a single judge dismissed the writ petition in June 2002.

"Human face"

Concurring with advocate N.G.R. Prasad's submission that the Government's actions must have a human face, the Division Bench said: "As rightly pointed out by Mr. Prasad, if the trolleys are entrusted to a contractor or an agency, they will engage their own people, whose competition with the licensed porters would become inevitable. It is also possible that the contractor/agency may utilise their services by paying nominal amounts and take larger amounts as profit. Such method is undesirable as it will directly affect the marginal livelihood of the licensed porters." It said a distribution and restoration point for trolleys could be earmarked.

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