Unions protest privatization of railways

COIMBATORE: Around 50 members of SRMU (Southern Railway Mazdoor Union) and AIRF (All India Railwaymen’s Federation) in Coimbatore on Tuesday protested privatization of the railways.
They staged the protest at the loco shed on the Goodshed Road.
The unions have also decided to create public awareness through Twitter on how privatisation will affect them.
They have also requested the public to switch off all their lights for 10 minutes from 8pm to 8.10pm on Saturday, September 19, to show their support to the union’s demands.
The SRMU and AIRF protested multiple decisions taken by the railways mainly including surrendering or abolishing of vacancies, privatization of 150 trains across 109 routes, abolishing dearness allowance and implementation of any of Bibek Debroy committee’s recommendations.
“We are against privatization of the 150 trains, because this is just the beginning. They will increase the number of trains every year, covering all 22,000 trains eventually,” said M Govindan, divisional secretary, Salem, of SRMU. “Once privatized, they will remove the 50% concession that tickets are sold at, will bring the dynamic pricing like Suvidha trains and charge people to even enter the station,” he added.
They said cancelling vacancies would lead to safety issues for the public, because one man doing two or three men’s jobs would lead to safety compromises.
“We will post our demands and protests on Twitter and tag the Prime Minister and railway minister on Saturday and build public awareness over the next four days till the lights off moment,” said Govinda.