CR ticket checkers on strike tomorrow

They are upset with senior divisional commerce manager for withholding travel allowance for three months

CR ticket checkers on strike tomorrow

They are upset with senior divisional commerce manager for withholding travel allowance for three months

More than 1,300 ticket examiners from the Central Railway under the banner of the National Railway Mazdoor Union (NRMU) will organise a Kaam Bandh Andolan and carry out a morcha in front of the divisional railway manager's (DRM) office situated at CST tomorrow.

CR's ticket examiners will organise a Kaam Bandh Andolan and carry out a morcha to the DRM's office at CST tomorrow

Their grouse is that the senior divisional commercial manager Atul Rane has stopped paying them travel allowance for the last three months. According to the complaint, the ticket examiners have not been receiving their travel allowance, which Rane has stopped for reasons unknown to them.

Earlier, a ticket examiner would receive a travel allowance of Rs 90. However, after the sixth pay commission the central government increased the travel allowance to Rs 340. The system was introduced since the British Raj and was continued till three months back.

Complaining about the failure of being paid their allowance, one ticket examiner said, "Our staff travels till Bhusaval, Nasik and Pune. He halts there in the night. He has to face this unfair cut. Atul Rane is working as if he is Hitler."

The ticket examiners complained to the NRMU last week following which the members of NRMU met with railway authorities seeking an explanation. However, disappointed by their inability to provide satisfactory answers, they decided to organise the protest.

"We have regularly met the DRM asking for help. We are trying to convince him that the claims of the ticket examiners are genuine. The DRM has promised that after verifications are made, the amounts will be cleared," said Venu Nair, divisional secretary, NRMU.

Meanwhile, the ticket examiners from the Western Railway are receiving their travel allowance. "Staff belonging to Western Railway (WR) is receiving TA. The other running staff including the guard and driver is also receiving overtime but we are facing these cuts. This is injustice," said a senior ticket examiner.

Rs 90
Amount that a TC would receive as travel allowance

The Other Side
Refuting the claims of the ticket examiners, Atul Rane, said, "The railway's vigilance department has submitted a report that some ticket examiners are claiming false figures. They are claiming 100 per cent of the travel allowance. That is wrong. The clarification is ongoing and once the report is finished, the entire issue will be cleared."