Loco pilots stage protest

THE HINDU   HUBBALLI, JULY 17, 2018 

The members of the All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA) on Tuesday launched a two-day relay hunger strike in Hubballi to press for their long-pending demands.

Members of the Hubballi Division (South-Western Railway) unit of the Association staged a sit-in as part of the two-day agitation in front of the office of the General Manager of SWR on Gadag Road here.

The protest was in response to the call for nationwide protest given by the Association’s national body, condemning the inordinate delay in finalising the Running Allowance for loco pilots.

The protesters first took out a march from Hubballi Railway Station to the General Manager’s office, where they staged a hunger strike. They raised slogans against the Railway Board and the Union government, condemning the delay in fulfilling their demands.

Office-bearers of the Hubballi division unit in their memorandum said that the Running Allowance Committee (RAC 1980) had, after a detailed study, derived a methodology to calculate running allowance. However the railway management was unnecessarily delaying the process of finalisation of Running Allowance rate, they said.

They said their main demand was revising Running Allowance as per RAC 1980 formula, rectifying the anomalous order (RBE 13/2018) on revision of pension and ensuring parity in pension between pre- and post-2016 retired running staff. The agitation will conclude on Wednesday evening.