Railways keen on safety rules, sacks six gatemen

(File Photo)

Six gatemen were expelled from service by the railway authorities in Trichy division on charges of leaving the gates open in violations of instructions given by authorities in order to ensure safety at level crossings. They were caught by the divisional officers during a surprise inspection. Meanwhile, unions have appealed the railway authorities to give them counselling and reinstate with minimal punishment.
Citing few safety violations noticed at non-interlocked level crossings at the Trichy railway division somedays ago, the divisional operating manager issued a circular instructing station masters as well as gateman to follow a set of safety rules. During a surprise visit by the divisional authorities, six gateman - C K Ajasmon, A James, T Jayavardhanan, E Selvanathan, M Manimaran and Karunakaran - were found guilty as they were not following the norms and all of them were removed from service, sources said.
As per the instruction, the station masters should inform the gateman about particulars including train number, probable time along with his unique number before the train makes a move. The gateman should immediately acknowledge the same and give his unique number for having understood the movement of the train.
After closing the gate, the gateman shall communicate with another unique number to the station master and the station master should acknowledge it with his unique number. This procedure should be followed during the failure of interlocked traffic level crossing also. All the transactions should be noted in the register maintained for the purpose.


Meanwhile, union functionaries have appealed railway authorities to reconsider the termination orders stating that the sacked were youngsters and are very new to the railway.
"A gateman has to face the heat of the locals if the train gets delayed in crossing the stretch. They are forced to keep the gate open a few minutes only for emergency situations, like allowing ambulance. Many a times, owing to various reasons, the exchange of unique numbers between the station master and gateman also gets mismanaged. Sometimes the train leaves the station late due to some reasons", said D Manoharan, deputy general secretary of Dakshin Railway Employees Union (DREU).

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