Title - ‘Railway Division not filling vacancies’

A few days after the incident of signal default at the Central Station here on Monday and resultant dislocation of trains for hours together, the All-India Station Masters’ Association has come out strongly against the policy pursued in T’Puram Railway Division not to  fill up vacancies, highlighting ‘fake’ efficiency.It was alleged that the root-cause of the default was the unilateral withdrawal of the Outdoor Station Master who had been looking after the shunting operations here recently.The ‘Trail Through’ incident had occurred on Monday wherein empty bogies of 16302 Venad Express were taken out from the washing and cleaning lines with the diverting track (point),which was not in favour. Two points were damaged in the incident. All the trains were delayed and the after-shock continued till the evening.Railway Divisional Manager Rajesh Agarwal had suspended the platform duty station master, one loco pilot and five shunting staff, holding them responsible for the default which occurred in the signalling system.“There are hundreds of criss-cross movements without the aid of interlocked signal given from the signalling cabin. Every major yard has a station master exclusively posted for yards to oversee rake movements to and from the yard,” AISMA south zone T’Puram Division president S Prakasan alleged.

“Safety has taken a backseat in recent times in the Division, going by the Kumbalam level-cross accident. Wherever level-crossing gate accidents took place, all such unmanned level crossings were later provided with gate keepers,” Prakasan alleged. Vacancies in the station master cadre in the Division had shot up to 20 pc. Authorities are not keen on safety but ‘fake efficiency’, the Association blamed.

“By giving a press release, Divisional Rly Manager of T’Puram had washed his hands off by simply putting the responsibility upon poor employees. Instances of train engines failing in tracks, consequently leading to delaying trains have become a common thing,”it was alleged.