Title - Railway accounts staff demand laptops

The All-India Railway Accounts Staff Association (AIRSA) today demanded that the Railways provide laptops to all its 26,000 members. Now the officials were getting one laptop every four years. "We want laptops for each of the 26,000 members for their entire service," a resolution adopted at the biennial general body meeting of AIRSA here said. Briefing reporters about the resolutions, General Secretary Unnikrishnan and President R.K.Saraswat demanded implementation of arbitration award, notionally from 1986, with credit of arrears to the Provident Fund as negotiated earlier. They warned the members that the multinational and corporate financiers were eyeing the railways' accounts department. The association wanted 14,000 vacancies in the department to be filled and creation of unified accounts cadre including data processing cadre as recommended by the Sixth Pay Commission.