Title - Motormen refuse overtime duty, Various suburban train services cancelled

Motormen in central railway on Friday refused to work overtime to compensate shortage of staff. Later they called off their strike at 5 pm in the evening but peakhour services took serious hit and as many as 100 train services were called off by the railway till late night.

Stampede like situation arose at Dadar, Kurla, Thane and Ghatkopar stations in the evening. Due to cancellation of suburban train services, huge snarls were reported on roads as commuters rushed towards buses, taxis in the evening.

159 motormen refused overtime duty on Thursday. Central Railway has 670 motormen. During the protest, additional halts were also provided to some long distance trains to reduce overcrowding of passengers.

 Rail Kamgar Sena (RKS) and Central Railway Mazdoor Sangh (CRMS) said that their protest was all about full filling vacancies and to revoke administration's decision of compulsory retirement of a motormen - Ramesh Sailani who jumped a red signal in January 2017.

Once the authorities agreed to review motormen's demand, the strike was called off. 

RP Bhatnagar, president of CRMS said, “We feel the administration should not hand out harsh punishment in case of Signal Passed At Danger (SPAD) because motormen are working under stressful conditions. The administration has agreed to get the motorman’s case reviewed by the principal chief operating manager.”