Brief report of Hunger Fast at NDLS

MASSIVE RALLY AND HUNGER FAST AT NDLS ON 14 & 15 DEC 2015

Com.M.N.Prasad, Com KAS Mani , Com. PN Soman, Com. KC James, Com JS Tank , Com RR Bhagat and Com. Ram sharan arrives at NDLS on 7th December to oversee the preparations of Mass Rally and 36 hours hunger fast and to meet Ministers, MP’s and Railway Board Officials.

On 8th Dec our leaders met Com. P Karunakaran MP and Com. Tapan Sen MP. Also they tried to get appointment of Railway Minister and got for 14th. They met Com M Krishnan, General Secretary, Confederation of Central Govt Employees and Workers Confederation, Com. Raghavaiah General Secretary NFIR, and Com. Siva Gopal Mishra General Secretary AIRF and invited them to address our Hunger fast.

On 9th Dec our delegation accompanied with Com P Karunakaran MP met Sri AK Mittal, Chairmen Railway Board and Member Staff, Railway Board.

On 13.12.2015, Comrades from all over India starts arriving at Ambedkar Bhavan to take part in the Rally and the Hunger fast. Entire rooms and halls at Ambedkar Bhavan has been booked for the accommodation of our comrades who are arriving from all corners of India to take part in the programs.

On 14.12.2015 Final batches of comrades arrive at Ambedkar Bhavan.

09.00 hrs Breakfast arranged at Ambedkar Bhavan for all the comrades present there. 

At 10.15 hrs Massive Rally starts from Ambedkar Bhavan with Secretary General com.M.N.Prasad leading from the front followed by about 1000 comrades and exits the gates of Ambedkar Bhavan. 

The NDLS road traffic on the Jhansi Rani Road which was smooth till then slowly comes to a grinding halt owing to the passing of the Massive Rally which started with about 1000 members and ended up at the hunger fast Pandal near Jantar Mantar. As usual, Southern Railway comrades were at the tail end of the Rally along with some of their family members which was a very colourful sight. They shouted slogans cheerfully in three different languages viz. English, Tamil & Malayalam. Even the family members took part in repeating the slogans enthusiastically which bemused the accompanying Police forces as well as the passing public. Even though they could not understand our slogans fully, some of the public cheered us from the roadside and the buses in standstill traffic. The Rally passed through 4 important junctions and one could see the NDLS traffic coming to a grinding halt in all the roads that the Rally crossed. Even with a moderate walking speed the Rally took nearly 18 minutes to pass any particular point. And all through the Rally colourful banners of all the participating divisions and zones were held high in addition to the waving of hand held flags of AILRSA.

The spirit of the members participated in the Rally soared high which was evident from the sound of shouting and repeating the slogans. From each division/zone 2 or 3 comrades shouted the starting slogans like "INQUILAB ZINDABAD" and all the other members in a chorus replied with "AILRSA ZINDABAD". 

By this time the number of comrades in the Rally swelled to nearly 2000. The Rally with sounds like thunder and reverberating on the streets of NDLS finally reached the hunger fast pandal near Jantar Mantar at about 12 noon and the comrades continued to raise slogans in favour of AILRSA, Demanding the implementation of HPC with modifications sought by AILRSA, implementation of other reports like HLSRC and SPAD meeting minutes, etc for another 20 to 30 minutes at the pandal before Secretary General com.M.N.Prasad could begin his speech marking the start of the hunger fast. 

Such a massive Rally by loco Running staff on the streets of NDLS witnessed in 1998 and after 18 years we see another massive rally.

Com. Basudeb Acharia inaugurated the Hunger Fast and he explained various issues regarding loco Running staff and working class in general.

Com. Tapan Sen, MP and General Secretary CITU, Com SR Bagga( AIREC) Com BC Sharman Vice President NFIR and Zonal Secretary, URMU, Com Siva Gopal Mishra, General Secretary AIRF were addressed the gathering.

On 1512.2015 a delegation comprising of Com MN Prasad, Com. MM Roly, Com MP Deo along with Com Tapan Sen MP met Hon Railway Minister Sri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu at his office and had a discussion for around 30 minutes. Minister assured to look in to our grievances with respect to 7th CPC and also instructed Member Staff to follow up implementation of HPC.