Trackman run over by Howrah-Ahmedabad Express union renews demand for Rakshak device

New Delhi, Sep 15 (PTI) The Howrah-Ahmedabad Express ran over a track maintainer in Chakradharpur rail division of South Eastern Railway Zone on Monday morning, a spokesperson from the zonal railway said.
     According to official sources, Dhaneshwar Mehto (54) was employed in the Railways as a keyman whose job was to take care of tracks.
     “Mehto was found dead on the track around 8.30 am near Manoharpur station. The loco pilot of the train informed the station master about this incident," Chand Mohammed, Working President of the All India Railway Trackmaintainers Union (AIRTU), said.
     Mohammed and other union leaders, who have been demanding the distribution of “Rakshak” device to all track workers for past many months, have blamed the Railway administration for this accident.
     “Rakshak is a GPS-based device which gives an alert sound before the arrival of the train to ensure safety of tracks workers,” Mohammed said, adding that the railway administration initially promised to issue one device to each track worker but failed to do leaving us on our own fate.
     Meanwhile, the Railways maintains that majority of workers have been already distributed this device.
     “Ministry of Railways has piloted Rakshak device in a couple of divisions on trial basis. However, till now it has not been distributed in at least 65 out of total 68 rail divisions of the Indian Railways,” Kantaraju AV, National General secretary AIRTU, said.
     “Because of this, one track maintainer dies on the track every day,” he claimed.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)