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Railway porters threaten agitation

— Photo: Lingaraj Panda

Registered railway porters busy clearing the goods at Berhampur Railway Station on Tuesday.

BERHAMPUR: Railway porters of Khurda Road division of East Coast Railways in Orissa have threatened to take the path of agitation if their demands were not fulfilled by the end of January.

The porters demand that all those who were selected for the posts of gangmen be provided appointment as early as possible. They also want the railways to continue with the tradition of transfer of porters’ licenses from retiring porters to their family members of next generation.

The secretary of the porters’ union of Khurda Road division, Sanjay Kumar Choudhury, said there were 668 porters in the division. As per the declarations made by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, all able bodied porters are eligible to become gangmen. Till now 277 of them have become gangmen in this railway division. But there are 184 more porters who have passed the physical tests for selection to the posts of gangmen, but have not received any offer for appointment till now. Forty two porters have not got appointed although they received call letters as their final screening tests have not been done. The porters demanded the railway authorities to get all fit porters appointed as gangmen as early as possible.

The porters had tradition to hand over their license to their progenies or other able bodied relatives when they got aged. But this tradition is about to be broken as the railway authorities are not agreeing to this transfer of porters’ licenses. So, many aged porters like C.H. Krishna are not able to hand over their porters’ license to their next generation although they wish for it. The porters want this tradition to continue although this profession has no more remained lucrative as in the past.

The porters have decided to hold demonstrations at Khurda Road and Bhubaneswar if the authorities do not take any decisive action regarding their demands in next few days.

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