Lucknow – Railway porters across the country protested against the alleged move to employ private porters through the ‘MyCoolie App’. Under the banner of the Rashtriya Coolie Morcha (National Porter Front), porters at various railway stations submitted memorandums to the Railway Minister through the respective Station Superintendents. In Lucknow, a memorandum was handed over to the Station Director at Charbagh Railway Station.
The memorandum demanded an immediate halt to the ‘Private MyCoolie App’, employment for all porters within the railways, immediate implementation of existing social security schemes for porters, and the withdrawal of cases registered against porters in Prayagraj.
Providing details about the protest, Ram Suresh Yadav, coordinator of the Rashtriya Coolie Morcha, stated that the privatization and modernization of railways across the country pose a serious threat to the life security and livelihoods of porters. He alleged that porters are being employed through the ‘MyCoolie App’ in the Western Railway, and private porters are being assigned work through the trolley system by contractors at various stations, including Prayagraj.
He emphasized that porters are citizens of this country and are appointed by the railways. Therefore, it is the government’s responsibility to ensure their life security. He argued that the government cannot shirk its responsibility by claiming a lack of resources. He suggested that if the government shows the will, it can secure the lives and jobs of porters by imposing appropriate taxes on the assets of large corporate houses in the country.
Yadav further stated that while the Railway Minister has claimed in Parliament that porters are being provided with social security, including education and health, the reality on the ground is that these provisions are not being implemented. Therefore, today’s protest demanded that the Railway Minister provide jobs to porters in the railways and immediately implement the orders issued for their social security.
The programs held at various railway stations were led by prominent porter leaders including Jaleel Ahmed and Izhar Ahmed (Lucknow), Ram Janam (Kanpur), Dharampal (Ayodhya Cantt), Rajkumar (Vardhman), Kanhaiya Yadav (Howrah), Chandrapal (Ambala), Satya Prakash (Aligarh), Rambali Yadav and Kalim Makrani (Jhansi), Amjad and Chandruwai (Hubli), Nadeem (Vasco da Gama), Pintu (Tripura), representatives from Guntakal-Secunderabad, Rahul and Rahmatullah (Koderma), Sultan Badshah and Raj Kapoor (Dehradun), Ankush Gogi (Mumbai), Suresh (Moradabad), Rajkumar (Bilaspur), Ramarao, Subhash Yadav and Jayshree (Belgaum), Suresh (Hospet), Sheikh Amir (Lumding Guwahati), Ramesh Thakur (Tirupati Balaji), Kalidas and Rambabu Bilala (Bhopal), Salman, Ram Mahawar and Sant Hriday (Ramnagar), Bhuvan Yadav (Jabalpur), Arun (Hajipur), Shivram (Bareilly), Basha (Jagannath Puri), K. Bablu, Kedar Yadav and Birendra Yadav (Varanasi), Gurumurthy (Chennai), Ramdeen (Dimapur), Jalal Kumar Bhagat (Miryalaguda), Kappera Ashok and Anil Sanwale (Bhusawal), Chandeshwar Mukhiya (New Jalpaiguri), and Subhash and Rambali Yadav (NER Lucknow).
