Commuters in Mumbai travelling on the Central Railway (CR) grappled on Tuesday after railway apprentices chose to come out in protest against the railway recruitment system. The agitated protestors resorted to rail roko between Matunga and Dadar railway stations on the main line during the morning rush hours.
For various technical jobs, the railways select and appoint apprentices in various workshops across India. Earlier, these apprentices were absorbed into the railways as they got preference during recruitments. But in 2016, the railway ministry resolved to hold this and provided them just a 20% quota. Since then, many apprentices could not get railway jobs and have been staging protests.
The protestors blocked all of CR lines, so both the slow and fast local train services disrupted ahead of Matunga. Thus commuters had to walk on tracks.
“Due to some agitation between Matunga and Dadar, rail traffic has been affected between Matunga and CSMT,” said Sunil Udasi, chief public relations officer, CR.
The protest began after 7 am and went on for around three-and-a-half hours. The agitation by students in Mumbai was called off at 10.35 am.
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal later requested the protesting students seeking permanent jobs in the railways to apply for the ongoing recruitment drive which ends on March 31.
Addressing a hurriedly-called press conference, Mr Goyal said 20 percent of the posts were reserved in keeping with the “various judgements pronounced by the Supreme Court from time to time and as per section 22(1) of the Apprentices Act”.
This 20 percent posts are reserved for ‘course completed act apprentices’ who were already engaged in railway establishment under the Apprenticeship Act.
Indian Railways is currently in the midst of a massive recruitment drive to fill over 90,000 Group C and Group D posts and the minister urged them to apply for these jobs, the last date of which is March 31.This is the single largest recruitment ever undertaken by the railways in India.
Earlier in the day, hundreds of students blocked rail traffic, including suburban services between the busy Matunga and Dadar stations in Mumbai, causing difficulties to lakhs of commuters.
The students blocked the rail track at 7 am this morning, forcing railways to stop the suburban as well as express trains in the affected section between Matunga and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT).
All four lines were affected between Matunga and CSMT. Police and railways officials engaged in talks with them, an official said.