Bereaving first casualty, Railways to take extra precautions for staffers above 55

Ludhiana: A pall of gloom descended on the Ludhiana railway station after the shocking news about the death of a senior divisional mechanical engineer of carriage and wagon department from Ferozepur division spread. he was admitted to the local CMCH hospital after getting infected with Covid-19 virus some days back.
Following this, the higher authorities of Northern Railway while taking more precautionary measures have issued a set of latest guidelines to the local railway staff, which have been deputed in the work of managing heavy parcel and heavy wagon trains.
Sources in the railway department have revealed that the authorities concerned are also proposing against giving field duties to railway employees above 55 years of age as a safety measure to ensure their safety.”
As part of more precautionary measures for class IV employees in the cleanliness department, the railways authorities have asked the local health department officials to conduct regular medical screening of all as they were entering the station premises from different parts of the district. However, railway authorities have asked cleanliness department officials to ensure that only 50%officials work at one time for managing the cleanliness work of the station premises as only a limited trains are passing through the city station at present, so a lot of waste is not being generated at the station premises.
The Railways have put restrictions on the use of lifts and escalators by the local railway officials and asked the local vendors to store masks and sanitisers for further selling these to passengers who are in dire need of these things during their travelling time.
“Moreover, the railway authorities will soon provide personal protective equipment (PPE) kits to local ticket checking staff as the authorities have acquired these from Delhi headquarters and will soon be distributed among ticket checking staff, including railway protection force,” sources said.
Ludhiana railway station director Tarun Kumar said, “The Railways have suffered a huge blow after the death of one of the employees. We have received all guidelines from Northern Railway authorities to ensure the mandatory health check-up of all railway officials who are working in different departments.”
“Railway authorities are also fighting against all odd circumstances to ensure better service for all passengers because its tough time for them in managing work in every field because we have lost two officials (one a Railway Protection Force employee and another a senior railway official) from different department in just a span of one month,” the station director said.