KOCHI: The Thiruvananthapuram railway division, which has been facing acute shortage of station masters for a long time, has allegedly turned down the sanction accorded by the Railway Board to fill up 50 posts. “The sanction was accorded at least a year ago, but no step has been taken to fill up those vacancies,” said Southern Railway Mazdoor Union (SRMU) general secretary S Gopikrishnan.According to some of the station masters, they have been bearing the brunt of the indifferent attitude of the authorities, as they were forced to handle a heavy workload.“So often we are made to work for long hours which are against the provisions in the Railway Labour Act. In many railway stations in the division, the station masters have to perform multi-tasks such as issuing tickets because of the shortage of counter clerks. Apart from this, the responsibility of manned and unmanned gates also fall on station masters,” a member of the Station Masters Association said.The pressure is severe in the Alappuzha sector where one station master has the charge of at least 12 manned gates. “Since there are no additional station masters to take up the work, we are not able to avail our leaves. It effects us mentally and physically,” another station master said.Adding to their woes, on an average, at least two station masters in the division retire every month. “Since nothing is being done to fill up the posts, this doubles the workload of other station masters. The situation will get grimmer in the next two years,” he added.However, according to divisional railway manager Rajesh Agarwal, there is no urgency to fill up the vacant posts. “In the past, it was true that station masters were overloaded with work. But in the computerised era, if they are complaining that they have heavy workload, nothing can be done,” he said.
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