Railway employees have expressed displeasure over the sudden arrival of a high-ranking railway official from Chennai purportedly for an inspection admist COVID-19 threat.
They charged that the official, along with some of his family members, came here by a railway saloon that was attached to the parcel special train on Tuesday. A host of railway officials, mostly belonging to his department, accorded him a warm welcome with a bouquet.
“Even as the news of a railway official in Madurai Railway Division having contracted the virus broke on Tuesday, the railway officials and employees assembled on the platform,” a railway workers’ union leader said.
The written schedule of the saloon was not made public among the railway officials concerned, he alleged. Besides, three Officer’s Rest Houses were made ready for their stay.
However, Divisional Railway Manager V.R. Lenin said that the official had come for an inspection of track doubling work under way at Vanchi Maniyachi and some other work in Dindigul. “His uncle, a retired railway employee, has come with him with an e-pass,” he added.
Meanwhile, the son of a railway staff said that he had lodged a complaint with Madurai Corporation about the arrival of the official from Chennai, a COVID-19 hotspot.