While leading hundreds of railway workers outside the office of the Divisional Railway Manager (WR), Satya Prakash, WRMS Divisional Secretary BCT Ajay Kumar Singh said, “The agitation is against the government ruling on outsourcing. The railways is hiring private contractors for works like cleaning and washing which is done by railway workers. A lot of discrepancies are occurring due to this.”

However, Satya Prakash said, “They have not presented any demand in writing so far. I am not aware of what they want.”

According to Singh, as the contractors don't pay their workers well, the work done by them is not satisfactory.

“The contractors pay their employees a meagre salary of Rs 1500 a month. On the other hand, the railway employees are paid Rs 6000 a month... the employees on contract hardly do a good job.”

Singh further said that the onus of bad work in the railway premises falls on the railway workers as the private contractors are not accountable to the railways. “The private contractors are creating a mess. For instance, now the work for changing linen is also given to them and they do not replace the linen with changing stations. The new commuter uses the same linen used by the commuter who just got down,” says Singh.

“We want the railways to prevent surrender of jobs of the railway workers to the private contractors,” Singh added.

When inquired about the Railway Ministry’s decision on outsourcing, Satya Prakash said, “This is purely the ministry decision, and I cannot do anything about it.”