New Delhi | Stepping in to check the manipulation of working hours of loco pilots to hide their overutilisation, the East Central Railway (ECR) zone has warned all its five divisions against entering false duty breaks in the online Crew Management System.
In a circular issued to Sonpur, Danapur, Samastipur, Dhanbad and Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyay divisions on August 4, the principal chief electrical engineer of the ECR zone directed the officials concerned not to break duty hours of train crew in between sign-on and sign-off while entering it into the Crew Management System (CMS).
"If any lobby is doing it, it should be stopped immediately. If such cases are found, crew controllers will be held liable for these," the circular said.
On August 2, PTI reported that the All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA) has alleged that various railway zones are manipulating the working hours of train drivers by falsely entering duty breaks during their 12 to 16-hour trips in the online CMS to hide their overutilisation.
Prior to that, AILRSA general secretary Ashok Kumar Raut wrote to the ECR general manager and submitted a memorandum compiling several issues that affected loco pilots' working conditions, including the false trip breaks.
Raut alleged that the illegal and unsafe practice of inserting duty breaks in the system was being done on the verbal orders of some senior officials, such as the chief traction loco controller and the chief crew controller.
According to Raut, Railways has outsourced CMS data entry work to private personnel and these officials instruct them to insert such breaks.
Following Raut's representation, the ECR's Dhanbad division issued a circular on July 15 warning of strict action against the insertion of false duty breaks between sign-on and sign-off in the CMS.
"A direction is being issued to all to not break duty hours between the sign-on and sign-off of the crew while registering it in CMS. If it is happening in any crew lobby, it must be stopped immediately. If such cases are found, strict disciplinary action will be taken," the circular stated.
According to the railway norms, a loco pilot cannot be asked to work for more than nine hours at a stretch and no more than 11 hours in total from sign-on to sign-off. Since 2021, the Safety Department of the Railway Board has instructed all zonal railways that 80 per cent of the trips should be completed within the nine-hour limit.
"I hope that this practice will stop now," Raut said.
