Railway travelling ticket examiners (TTEs) staged a protest by lying down on the platforms of the Shoranur and Mangalore railway stations on Wednesday, International Workers Day, demanding better restroom facilities.
A joint action council of railway employees consisting of the Indian Railway Ticket Checking Staff Organization, Southern Railway Employees Sangh, Mazdoor Union, Dakshin Railway Employees Union, and Ticket Examiners Welfare Forum spearheaded the protest.
About 30 TTEs, including women, boycotted their restrooms and staged a demonstration at the Palakkad Junction railway station.
Inaugurating the protest, V.K. Sreekandan, MP, accused the senior officials of the Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram Railway Divisions of adopting a deplorable stand in providing better restroom facilities for TTEs.
He said that senior railway officials were showing a sadistic attitude towards the workers by denying them restrooms with better facilities like drinking water and air-conditioning. “I shall bring the woes of the TTEs to the attention of the Railway Board and higher authorities,” he said.
Southern Railway Mazdoor Union divisional secretary R. Rajesh, Southern Railway Employees Sangh divisional president V. Unnikrishnan, secretary Jayesh Shankar, Ticket Checking Staff Organization national vice president S.M.S. Mujeeb Rahman, Southern Railway Employees Union assistant general secretary K. Udaya Bhaskaran, Welfare Forum president K. Sreekumar, and other trade union leaders such as K. Asokan, N. Venugopal, K. Aji Joseph, K.S. Rajesh, G. Vinod, and Jolly John addressed the protestors.
The protestors warned that they would strengthen the agitation if the railway authorities continued to ignore their demands, which included increasing the capacity of restrooms for women TTEs and proper maintenance of all TTE restrooms.
