Ranchi loco pilots & guards protest long travelling time

Ranchi: Loco pilots and guards, who are working under the jurisdiction of the Ranchi railway division of South Eastern Railways (SER), are on the warpath with the divisional authorities over a new set of directives regarding their duties.
The Loco Running Staff Association of Ranchi division, the umbrella body of over 600 loco pilots and guards, claim that the new directive is forcing them to ‘overshoot’ beyond the laid down guidelines of the Railway Board. “Loco pilots and guards have been mandated to sign off at the headquarters station. He or she must be given 16 hours of rest, excluding two hours of call time. However, due to a bizarre directive of the divisional authorities, we are being forced to operate loco engines beyond the terminal station, which is called overshooting,” Ram Jeet, the association president, said.“Operating for long hours without rest could result in accidents,” he warned.
The association had last week took out a candle-light march outside the Hatia railway station. On Tuesday, the wives of the loco pilots gheraoed the office of divisional railway manager Pradeep Kumar Gupta.