Hyderabad: Railway Loco staff of South Central Railways staged hunger strike at various railway station across the zone on Thursday to raise their demands for fixation of duty hours, periodical rest, among other aspects.

Loco Running Staff pointed out it may be seen that normally eight hours duty at a stretch is prescribed for entire Railway employees, but in the case of Loco Pilots, the prescribed duty at a stretch stands at 11 hours. Despite various high power committee recommendations to reduce the duty hours of Loco Pilots to ensure safety in train operations, nothing was implemented.

In practice, the Loco Pilots, especially in Goods trains, are forced to perform duty for 12 to 20 hours continuously. Similarly the Running Staff should be given a periodical rest of 16 hours + 30 hours (calendar day) i.e. 40 hours four times a month and along with this, it was recommended to reduce the consequent night duty but it was not implemented. Still, they are forced to work 12, 16 and 20 hours at a stretch, endangering the safety of train operations.

Sainath, a loco pilot said, “We are vexed submitting several pleas to the railway officials to hire more pilots and also to implement an eight-hour duty rule. The main cause of most of the problems faced by the Running Staff is the non-filling up of vacancies in almost all categories of Running Staff. The train services have increased manifold and at present, there are many varieties of special trains, which are not taken into account when calculating the vacancies of Running Staff. Due to this, the physical and mental health of Running Staff has deteriorated drastically.

"We are of requesting concerned officials to fill the vacant posts of the loco pilots, as working for long hours is becoming too hectic for us. Many times we have submitted representations regarding working hours but all fell on deaf ears. It will be better if South Central Railway solves our pleas soon," said Ramesh, a loco Running Staff.

Jilani Basha, a member of All India Loco Running Staff Association, said, “For the past several years, we are struggling with lot of restrictions put by the railways. Despite several committees’ recommendations, till date nothing was implemented. To highlight our plight, we have organised a 36-hour hunger strike.”