Ministry rejected the demand of Railway Union, new member signal and telecom will not be created, separate post will be created

The Ministry of Railways has turned down the request of the Indian Railway Signal and Telecom Maintainers Union, who had requested the re-establisment of the post of a standalone member (Signal and Telecom) in the Railway Board. Alok Chandra Prakash, Union General Secretary, requested this through the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Public Grievance Portal on 24 September 2024. He had indicated that the telecom and signal employees are not receiving their representation and they feel abandoned.

Prakash said in the letter that on 16 April 2019, the post of Director General (S&T) was upgraded to Member (S&T), but on 8 September 2020, this post was abolished and a new post of Member (Infrastructure) was created.

This demand of the Indian Railway Signal and Telecom Maintainers Union was sent by the PMO to the Ministry of Railways, but recently, the ministry replied that after consultation with the concerned departments of the Railway Board, it has been decided that this demand is not possible at the moment. However, the ministry said that Vijayalakshmi Kaushik has been appointed on 16 October 2024 in the post of Additional Member (Signal), which was vacant since 1 February 2023.

Regarding this, Alok Prakash said that the role of signal and telecom staff is important in the security of railways, yet no one raises their point at the board level. He said that many incidents have happened in recent times due to technical glitches. But instead of increasing our numbers, the vacant posts are not being filled.

Notably, currently there are four members in the Railway Board, namely Infrastructure, Traction and Rolling Stock, Operations and Business Development, and Finance. However, for quite some time the S&T Union has been agitating for an independent member.