Coolies demand employment in railways under Group D

Ferozepur, February 28, 2018: Today, the coolies protested in Ferozepur in front of the Ferozepur Cantt railway station led by Lazar Singh, President.

In 2008, we were promised that we will be included in Group D after some years but the ministry has not taken any steps to implement the same, he added.

“Our trade has already been affected with trolley bags, which have minimized our work on the stations,” the union member further said. “We will vanish if railway moves forward with their plan to do outsourcing for porters,” he added.

The protesting coolies are demand inclusion in Group D of railway services besides appointing medically unfit coolies to adjust them in railways as peon, gardener etc.

Coolie Union, Punjab leaders demanded that the children of coolies in old age may also be adjusted in the railways.  Expressing concern over the railways which had been extending various facilities to the passengers, the leaders said, the railways have never come forward for the help of coolies.

With the aim to remove the legacy of British empire, the Railway Minister during the railway budget of last year had announced that the porters, popularly called ‘coolies’ will be called ‘sahayaks’. But, the title ‘shayaks’ has not changed in our life, voiced the coolies- who held a dharna outside the Cantt railway station today.

The Union leaders said, in case their demands are not accepted, they will intensify their agitation.

Added here, around 30 coolies in Jalandhar city railway station were recruited in 2009 and even after 9 years, they had not received the benefits that are being given to other railway employees.

 Our trade has already been affected with trolley bags, which have minimized our work on the stations. The union member further said. “We will vanish if railway moves forward with their plan,” he added.