Divisional Secretary for National Railway Mazdoor Union N Haridasan said that not a single application has been screened yet by the railways. “The officials say that somebody from the railway board should screen the applications as the pressure from interested parties to get in their candidates is tough to handle,” he said.
Divisional Railway Manager for CR JN Lal confirmed, “We have not started screening the applications yet.”
On whether the porters can be appointed when there are already 20 lakh applicants awaiting to be screened, Lal said: “We are waiting for the railways’ policy decision. It's just a budget announcement, when guidelines will follow, issues will be taken up.”
However, even if the vacancies are filled up with licensed porters quashing the 20 lakh applications, there would still be a scarcity of gangmen. “The minimum educational qualification of a Group D employee should be 8th standard pass. Half of the porters will be out in this screening. The remaining will fail the stringent medical tests. If a porter even wears spectacles, he is not fit to become a gangman,” Haridasan said.
Meanwhile, the crunch for Group D workers, especially gangmen who clean the tracks, will keep the existing workforce overworked and weary.
“A gangman should be shifted to a workshop job after 10 years due to severe health consequences. However, due to the shortage, they are made to work for many more years. The rate for tuberclosis and heart attacks among them is already high,” Haridasan added.