Train carrying divisional railway manager for safety inspection runs over track maintainer in UP

New Delhi, Aug 16 (PTI) A special train carrying the divisional railway manager of Moradabad during a safety inspection allegedly ran over a track maintainer near Hakimpur railway station in Uttar Pradesh's Amroha on Friday.

The track maintainers' union alleged that Rajesh Singh joined the Railways only four months ago and he was engaged in patrolling and maintaining tracks without any training and in violation of norms.

However, the Railways denied the allegations and said Singh had received proper training.

"The deceased, a Railways employee, had proper training to work on the tracks. His training was completed in July. This is a human accident and the family of the employee is being provided with appropriate support," Senior Divisional Commercial Manager (Moradabad Division) told PTI.

He added that the divisional railway manager was on an inspection and "the inspection car was running on proper rules of train operations".

Contradicting the Railways' version, All India Railway Track Maintainers' Union national working president Chand Mohammad said, "The Permanent Way Inspector (PWI) of the unit engaged Singh without any specialised training for the job of keyman, which is against the norms. A keyman is an experienced and trained professional who is directly involved in track maintenance. Singh was not trained for the job at all. It takes several years for a fresh track maintainer to get promoted to a keyman." "According to his payscale grade, which was 1,800, he was supposed to be in a group of track maintainers for inspection and not alone as a 'keyman'. I think the Railways is talking about the refresher's training but Singh should have got the specialised training and experience. The track maintainers are the most neglected and deprived employees of the Railways and are at the receiving end of all sorts of violations," he added.

Last December, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that 361 "railway workers (trackmen/women, keymen/women, and others) died due to train accidents during maintenance work on railway tracks in the last five years (from 2019-20 to 27.11.2023)". PTI JP SZM