The All India Railway Track Maintainers Union gave its representation to the Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi recently when he visited the Delhi Cantt railway station to apprise himself of their challenges and working conditions.Various office bearers of the union, AIRTU, handed over a written note to Gandhi in which they alleged that the Railway Ministry has adopted an apathetic attitude towards about four lakh track maintainers, who work day and night to ensure safe train operations in the country.“Everyday on an average one track maintainer sacrifices his life while working on the track in the Indian Railways. The several reasons for this are that there is no guarantee of safety, long duration of extremely difficult work and reduction in the number of employees on the track,” said the note, signed by the officer bearers of the Union.

“Many track maintainers, who are supposed to work on track, have been employed by the Railway officials for their personal work due to which the tracks are not being maintained properly resulting in frequent accidents,” it added.

According to the Union, track maintainers are working against all odds in all sorts of extreme weather conditions – heat, cold and rain, however, they are deprived of many facilities which other departments of the Railways get.