Mumbaikars hit as job-seekers agitation paralyses Central Railway
MUMBAI: A flash agitation by jobseekers over issues pertaining to railway recruitment has culminated in a rail-blockade, police caning and retaliatory stone-throwing leading to a virtual paralysis of the Central Railway (CR) suburban train services here on Tuesday.
For nearly three hours, the services were severely disrupted as the protesters squatted and laid on the railway tracks between Matunga and Dadar on the CR.
The agitation led to a cascading effect even on the Western Railway with all trains running packed to capacity, the roads linking Mumbai with the mainland and the two highways slicing through the country’s commercial capital.
More than 4.5 million commuters were badly hit for the second consecutive day following a strike called on Monday by drivers of cab aggregators and app-based taxis that disrupted in Mumbaikars’ schedules.
Attempting to restore normalcy, the local police resorted to a mild lathi-charge to disperse the protestors.
Some retaliated by pelting stones at the police. At least five persons and a couple of police personnel were injured in the fracas even as top police and railway officials rushed to the site to control the situation.
The protests were carried out by activists of the All India Act Apprentice Association. It demanded scrapping of the 20 per cent quota for direct recruitment and jobs for local candidates in all states who have cleared the All India Railway Act Apprentice Exams.
They claimed they had taken up their demands right upto the Railway Minister Piyush Goyal who met them but there was no progress in the matter. A Shiv Sena MP from Mumbai Rahul Shewale met top CR officials to resolve the situation and later said that the railways would hire over 12,400 candidates who have cleared their apprenticeship exams.
However, the agitators refused to call off their agitation unless they were given a written undertaking by the railway authorities.
A CR spokesperson said that there was no provision of giving job to apprentices as per the Apprentice Act who are only trained for a specific period to hone their skills and gain experience.