Tension over assault on railway employee by contractor

From our Correspondent

Bongaigaon, June 10: Railway employees vented out their anger against privatization of railway property on Saturday when a private contractor of the Railway allegedly physically assaulted a Railway employee, who also holds a portfolio in a recognized Railway union. The angry railway employees of New Bongaigaon Carriage and Wagon Workshop gheraoed the office of the Chief Workshop Mager demanding justice against this physical assault and to stop outsourcing in New Bongaigaon Railway Workshop.

The employees under the banner of Joint Council of Action, which is an united platform of all trade unions, including North East Frontier Railway Mazdoor Union, N F Railway Employees’ Union and Purbanchaliya Rail Karmi Parishad, gheraoed  D S Kunwar, CWM of New Bongaigaon Workshop on Saturday.

Sankar Das, vice-president of NFRMU, New Bongaigaon Workshop Branch, who had allegedly been physically assaulted by a private contractor, said, “We were opposing outsourcing in this workshop since long and we had submitted several memoranda to the CWM in this regard. But the CWM opted for privatization. One work in the workshop had recently been given to private sector which we opposed. But today, the workers of the contractor started working and we opposed it. After this, the contractor Dilip Brahma arrived on the spot and started threatening us. Dilip Brahma physically assaulted me and Sanjib Deka, who introduced himself as a former member of some terrorist organization, threatened me that he would shoot me if we oppose them. By the time all the employees of the workshop started to gather and they both fled from the spot. Then we went to the nearby administrative building to meet CWM D S Kunwar regarding this matter. But surprisingly, CWM refused to meet any of the staff. On the contrary, he called police and RPF and ordered to close all the doors of the administrative building. So, we gheraoed the administrative building for several hours,” he said.

Later, after office hours, the employees concluded their gherao program. Pabitra Barman, secretary of NFRMU, Workshop branch, said that all the unions including NFRMU, NFREU, PRKP and others would sit for discussion tomorrow regarding this matter. He said that they would adopt the path of agitation from Monday if necessary action against the contractor was not taken.

The CWM refused to meet media persons in this regard.  Rakhal Das Gupta, president of All India Railwaymen’s Federation and general secretary of NFRMU, talked to Lokesh rayan, AGM of NF Railway regarding the matter and asked him to intervene in the matter.