Porters offered jobs by Lalu in a lurch

Licensed porters could not believe their luck when Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav offered them jobs in his organisation, but now they are finding themselves in a lurch.

"We submitted our porters' licence and took up the government job of gangmen with the Railways in excitement. But we were posted to far flung places where there was no proper facility of food, water or shelter," a porter-turned-gangman Noor Mohammad said.

Many of the porters of Ahmedabad finding out the harsh realities of their new job decided to return to their old jobs after staying for a week as gangmen, porters said. But, when they came back to Ahmedabad, the Railway authority denied to return their porter licences, they said.

"We don't know what to do now. We cannot do the job as gangmen and the authorities here are not allowing us to work as porters," Mohammad said.

"Around 350 porters were appointed as gangmen by the Ahmedabad division of Railways, out of which around 70 porters have returned leaving their job," General Secretary of Gujarat Hamal Sabha Sanmukh Kshatriya, said.

"Many more are also planning to leave the job," he added. The appointment were made after Yadav's announcement during his budget speech this year that lisenced proters will be offered job as gangman in the Indian Railways if they fulfill the basic criteria set by the ministry.

One of the conditions put forth by the Railways authorities was that only those willing to surrender their porter license will be offered a job as gangmen.

Gujarat Hamal Sabha, on Wednesday wrote a letter to the Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and the Chairman Railway Board to intervene in the matter.

In the letter they have requested that those porters, who have joined duty but want to go back to their old jobs, should be allowed to do so.

It further requested that everybody should be given back their porter licences so that they can start earning again. "The postings were in interior areas where there was hardly any human habitation," Kshatruiya added.

"The place where I was posted was in the interior and I had to spent Rs 14 for transportation to buy a match box for Re 1," said Budharam, (50), who was posted in an area near Dhangadra in Surendranagar district.

"It is very difficult to live in a place where there are no people around. There is only one small cabin under the sky and no trees in the vicinity. How can any one survive in such inhuman conditions," said Narayan (45), who was posted near Halvad in Surendranagar.

However, the Railway Authorities say that since they have no orders from the Ministry they can't do anything in the matter.

"Once they are appointed as gangmen they become employees of the Indian Railways. So it is not that easy to reinstate them as porters," senior Ahmedabad divisional manager (commercial) Pankaj Uka said.