Despite having promised to remove the flyers and banners in the interest of security at the busy station, the unions didn't bother to pull them down yesterday
Despite fervent promises from contesting unions that they would pull down banners and flyers that have been obscuring CCTV cameras inside CST, the flags stayed put yesterday, jeopardising security within the premises for yet another day.
It seems that the contesting unions couldn’t muster the will to pull down the posters on the first day of polling, in hope that they would bring them a few extra votes; the fact that these votes could come at the cost of the safety of passengers seems to be lost on them. Pic/Sayed Sameer Abedi
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MiD DAY had reported yesterday how posters and flags extolling the achievements of two unions had been festooned all over the premises of the busy station in the run-up to the Central Railways union elections (‘Poll posters put CST security at risk’). Central Railway Mazdoor Sangh (CRMS) and National Railway Mazdoor Union (NRMU), which are two of the oldest unions, have put up the posters.
The polling began yesterday, and the unions conveniently turned their back on the promises they had made to remove the banners. “Election comes once in five years and we have to present ourselves before our colleagues. We work for them throughout the term and now we need to tell them about it,” said S Siddique, divisional secretary of CRMS on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Navnirman Railway Kamgar Sena has decided to take up the issue with the Railway Board. “After the elections we will approach the railway boards with photographs. Unions are not taking security seriously. The government has spent crores on these cameras to get footage of the station as lot of crimes take place there. But unions are blocking the view of these cameras,” said Jitendra Patil, general secretary, Maharashtra Navnirman Railway Kamgar Sena (Central).
Meanwhile, the Railway Police Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP) decided to keep quiet on the matter. Though senior RPF officials have written on the matter to their seniors, nobody wanted to come on record. “How can somebody take security so carelessly? The senior railway officers should take serious action against such unions that create problems for the common man. The unions are there to help the common man and railway employees,” said Omkar Jadhav, a student who travels on the Central Railway network. u00a0
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