61 gangmen ready to revert to porter jobs at Pune station
Indian Express: A Fortnight ago, Tushar Jagtap alighted from a train from Jammu at Pune railway station and found it difficult to get a porter to carry his luggage to the taxi stand. When he found one ready to carry his two bags, he had to cough up Rs 100.
“Other porters asked for Rs 150 and above to carry two bags for a two-minute walk. This has been going on for the last six to eight months,” Jagtap said.
Commuters have little choice as there are few porters at the railway station. “The ones that are there demand excessive money. When we returned from Delhi recently, we found a few boys lurking around who offered to carry our bags for Rs 50,” said Sarita Mehta, another commuter.
The porter crunch at the railway station would be reduced to some extent soon, as 61 gangmen have applied for rejoining their old posts as porters. They had taken up former Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s offer in May 2008 to convert porters to gangmen with a promise of higher salaries.
Out of the 255 porters at Pune railway station, 170 had opted to become gangmen, leaving behind only around 80 porters.
“We are aware of the shortage of porters. After Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s decision to revert the old order, 61 gangmen have opted to return to their old jobs as porters. We expect the railways to take a decision on this soon,” said Datta Dhore, general secretary of Indian Railway Licensed Porters’ Association. “Right now, for one shift, there are only around 40 porters. Naturally, they will charge according to the demand,” Dhore said.
Pune Divisional Railway Manager Prabhat Sahai said that only the Railway Headquarters has the authority to take the final call on how many gangmen would be reassigned their jobs as porters. Sahai also did not set a time frame on when this would happen.
The deadline for gangmen to reapply for the porter jobs was November 25. “We have sent this proposal to headquarters in Delhi, we are awaiting a decision,” Sahai said.
Dhore said once the gangmen are confirmed as porters, the next target of the association is to get revised charges for porters.
“It is important to remember that these rates were fixed nearly 20 years ago. Since then the price rise has been tremendous. One cannot expect porters to work at these fixed rates. We are planning to push for a revision of rates,” Dhore said.
Railways has fixed the porters’ charges. For every 40 kg, they can charge Rs 20. In a trolley, they can charge Rs 30 for every 100 kg. If the trolley is moved by 4 people, then the rate is Rs 60.
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