WR fills 90% of vacant motormen posts

Kalpana Verma
Posted: Monday , Apr 26, 2010 at 0355 hrs
Mumbai:

The Western Railway (WR) has filled almost all vacancies of motormen in Mumbai division and the Central Railway (CR) is also in the process of filling vacant posts, which is likely to redress the shortage of motormen, a bone of contention, among others, between the railway administration and the motormen union.

The step is expected to overcome the repeated threats by motormen unions to go on strike. In fact, motormen of both WR and CR are planning a hunger-strike in the first week of May, though they would attend duty.

The WR has filled around 90 per cent of the vacancies by promoting and transferring staff. At present, Mumbai Division of WR has 397 motormen against the cadre strength of 440.

SS Gupta, Chief Public Relations Officer, WR, however, said, “Cadre is always for the maximum requirement. At present, the need is 421. So there are only 24 vacancies in Mumbai division. Seventy motormen are under training, 45 will complete it in August, 15 in September and 10 in October.”