Lucknow: The changes taking place in the name of privatization and modernization of railways have led to a sharp decline in the income of porters. The central government is constantly insisting on running new trains like Vande Bharat, Tejas and is also increasing the number of AC coaches in normal trains.
Goods and passengers are being loaded at the station through escalators and battery cars. At the same time, the government is starting trolley system at many stations in Prayagraj division of the state and is recruiting new people in addition to the porters.
In such a situation, the income of the porters has reduced drastically and their condition is becoming pathetic. As a result, the porters held a meeting at Charbagh station and demanded the government to recruit porters in the railways just like in 2008.
A decision was taken in the meeting of the porters to raise a Satyagraha movement in the coming days for the employment, education and health of these porters and to participate in the National Protest Day organized at the DLC office on September 23.
The meeting was chaired by Porter Union President Ram Suresh Yadav and the keynote speaker was Workers Front President Dinkar Kapoor.
In the meeting, the speakers said that every citizen of India has the right to live a respectable life under Article 21 of the Constitution. But due to the policies of the government, we are being deprived of this right. The wages of workers of every department are revised according to inflation. Even the wages of MNREGA workers are revised by the Government of India.
But for the last several years, no change is made in the rate of carrying goods by porters as per the Railway Board’s policy of 1984. Today the situation is such that the government has attacked the work of porters by installing battery vehicles.
There is a formal order to provide free education to the children of porters and health facilities to their families, which is not implemented. The situation is so bad that even the order to provide four uniforms in a year has not been implemented.
In such a situation, we will have to take the path of Satyagraha movement for the constitutional right to feed our children and live a respectable life. The meeting was addressed by Arun Kumar, Aqeel Ahmed, Raghavendra Pratap Singh, Ashok Kumar Yadav, Krishna Choudhary, Mangal Prasad Yadav, Amir Ahmed, Baijnath Yadav, Ghanshyam Verma, Imtiyaz, Akbar, Mohammad Ahmed, Ram Adhar Yadav and a large number of porters attended the meeting.
