Motormen’s stir throws Mumbai’s CR out of gear

Local trains plying on Mumbai's central and harbour lines in Mumbai came to a halt on Monday after motormen gave a strike call. Trains had queued up between CST station and Byculla. Around 60 station on the Central and Habour line were affected by the strike. The services were running 55 minutes late.

The strike was called by Central Railway motormen who demanded permanent jobs, new vacancies and other financial gains. The motormen also demanded a probe in the Khopri train tragedy.

Central Railway PRO S Mudgerikar said that the situation will be brought under control soon. Officials are in constant touch with all the unions. Meanwhile millions of commuters will be impacted by the sudden strike call if the situation is not brought under control.

Emotions ran high at the National Railway Mazdoor Unions office in CST on as motormen reiterated that they were not going on strike, but simply refusing to go beyond their in a work-to-rule agitation. "This is not a strike. We are doing our duties according to the book and not working overtime,'' said union members. Two other unions besides NRMU allegedly joined the agitation on Monday morning.

The death of their colleague in Friday's train accident has come as a shock to CR drivers. "He was trapped for more than three hours. The post-mortem report said he died of shock after his arm was amputated,'' added the union members. Ironically, if the deceased motorman R Ramchandran had chosen to accelerate, he would have been able to save himself but at the cost of commuters' lives.

One motorman said the work-to-order agitation was planned on Saturday. On Monday afternoon, NRMU union leaders handed over their memorandum of demands to CR's general manager. These included vacancies being filled, a modern approach to disaster management, and a detailed inquiry into the death of Ramchandran.