Mumbai: Train services on Central Railway resume slowly as students end protest

Suburban Mumbai rail services slowly resumed after they were hit during peak hours on Tuesday morning as several students blocked railway tracks between Dadar and Matunga stations on the central line. More than 3,000 students of the All India Act Apprentice Association staged a rail roko demanding jobs in the railway sector.

The students, who worked as apprentices in technical jobs at railways, called off the protests and the railway tracks were cleared, allowing suburban as well as express trains stranded between Dadar and Matunga stations to slowly resume.

“We have withdrawn our agitation as the railways have promised to give us a reply within two days,” an apprentice told the Hindustan Times. “They give us training but then they don’t want to employ us. How is this fair? People have come from all over India to protest. We will agitate further if our demands are not met.”

‘No provision of recruitment’

In a statement, the Central Railway said there is no provision of providing jobs to the apprentices under the Apprentice Act. “They are given only training for a specified period to improve their skills and experience of having worked in the field,” the statement read. “However, Ministry of Railways have taken a decision and reserved 20% of the seats filled through direct recruitment.”

The Railways said the notification regarding the recruitment has already been issued and the last date for submitting application is March 31. “Apprentices can apply against this notification and special examination will shortly be held for apprentices who have done training in Railway Workshops under Apprentices Act,” it added.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said no rules of the Apprentice Act have been changed and the students were demanding more than 20% reserved seats. “The police resorted to baton-charging after agitators started pelting stones. Nobody was injured,” Fadnavis said in the Maharashtra Assembly.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said the Indian Railways had introduced a recruitment policy that was “unbiased and transparent” on the directions of the Supreme Court. “Recruitment in railways is underway at a large scale,” Goyal said during a press conference. “The agitators have called off their protest and further discussions will be held.”