The Indian Railway S&T Maintainers’ Union has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to push the Ministry of Finance for the approval of a long-pending proposal for a ‘risk and hardship allowance’ for workers in the signal and telecom maintenance department.
Union’s Request and Current Status
The union represents over 60,000 signal and telecom (S&T) maintainers who are crucial for ensuring the safety of train operations. In a letter dated September 12, 2024, addressed to the Prime Minister, the union highlighted that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had previously informed them on May 5 that a committee was formed by the Ministry of Railways to evaluate the inclusion of new categories for the Risk and Hardship Allowance.
The letter noted that the PMO had reported, “The Committee has submitted its report and a suitable proposal has been forwarded to the Ministry of Finance. Report from the Ministry of Finance is awaited.” Despite the lapse of more than four months, there has been no action from the Finance Ministry.
The demand for this allowance was first raised in 2016 following the murder of a worker in Kota, Rajasthan, who was killed after refusing to open a level crossing gate to maintain safe train operations. The union also pointed out that many workers have been injured or killed while working on tracks to fix signal issues.
Alok Chandra Prakash, General Secretary of the Indian Railway S&T Maintainers’ Union (IRSTMU), emphasized the dangerous nature of their job, stating, “We perform a risky job as many of our workers have to be on duty much beyond the eight-hour schedule and sometimes round-the-clock due to shortage of manpower in the S&T maintenance department across the railway network.” He compared their job to other hazardous roles in the railway sector, such as track maintenance and train control, which already receive risk allowances.
Prakash urged Prime Minister Modi to “kindly pursue this matter with the Finance Ministry for the benefit of thousands of S&T maintainers who work day and night to ensure that crores of people reach home safely using the railway network in the country.”