Unions owe Rs 1.58 crore to Southern Railway till 2012
The figures for the last six years were not given by S.Rly.
Chennai: As all over Indian Railways, in Southern Railway also, all employee unions, recognized and unrecognized, owe lakhs of rupees to the government as rent for occupying offices on railway property, electricity and water charges, but officials are yet to recover the dues.
Data sourced through RTI from Southern Railway shows that, as on date, the sole recognized union, Southern Railway Mazdoor Union (SRMU) and 4 other unions owe Rs 1.58 crore.
Of this, SRMU owes Rs 83.25 lakh, while Southern Railway Employees Sangh (SRES) needs to pay Rs 32.91 lakh, Dakshin Railway Employees Union (DREU) Rs 10.5 lakh, All India OBC Railway Employees Association Rs 12.2 lakh and the All India SC ST Railway Employees Association Rs 19.59 lakh.
Some divisions have indicated that these are dues only till December 31, 2012. The figures for the last six years were not given. Other internal documents show the outstanding dues as on May 2017 at Rs 64 lakh, Rs 39.44 lakh and Rs 9.38 lakh for SRMU, SRES and DREU respectively. All documents and notices of payable dues sent to all unions are available with this newspaper.
A. Janakiraman, DREU working president, told that they have paid up; Suryaprakasam, SRES general secretary, said they were being wrongly charged for buildings they no longer occupy. But N. Kanniah, general secretary, SRMU did not respond.
In March 2017, Railway Board asked zonal railways to give a 45-days notice to all unions to clear pending bills. The order specifically directed Southern Railway to take action against erring unions.
In July, Kanniah quoted a 1993 letter and wrote to Southern Railway demanding that SRMU offices should be charged power at a lesser rate. This 1993 guideline says union offices as well as clubs like railway officers clubs are social welfare organisations and should be charged lesser up to a maximum limit which is indicated.
SRMU alone has 103 offices on this list. A number of buildings are also taken by the Railway Employees Credit Co-operative Society (RECCS), officers clubs and Southern Railway Women’s Welfare Organisation (SRWWO), apart from those by other unions and associations.
Officers association have represented to the general manager in the past on how these dues are not being recovered from the unions.
“No officer wants to rub the union the wrong way. This is public money that is recoverable, but nobody wants to,” said a senior official, who declined to be quoted.
“The union like SRMU are being operational along the lines of Italian Mafia. No surprise that officers are afraid of this union. It is unfortunate that the government is also pampering such unions whose leaders are living in a luxury life selling the collective bargaining power of workmen in a whole”, said in a comment by the Railway Society Staff Union.
Courtesy: TOI