He added, “Mr Gandhi visited the crew lobby and in the same building there is a running room also for pilots who come from outside to take rest. He spoke to everyone irrespective of which divisions they come from.”Kamlesh Singh, Central Treasurer of the Indian Railway Loco Runningmen Organisation (IRLRO), who was present during Gandhi’s visit, said that loco pilots across all rail networks face similar challenges and have similar grievances.”Whether it is about long duty hours, denial of weekly rest or lack of washroom and lunch break, these are common issues that all train drivers face across the divisions and zones. So this doesn’t merit an issue whether he met a loco pilot of Delhi Division or some other divisions,” Singh said.IRLRO’s Working President Sanjay Pandhi said that at all Running rooms of Indian Railways, only loco running staff from other stations rest.”An MP, who is also a leader of the opposition can meet anyone anywhere including all railway employees,” Pandhi said.Kumaresan clarified that Gandhi didn’t enter the running room as this would have disturbed loco-pilots who were taking rest before their next shift.Loco pilots also said that the Railway Ministry sent its officials to meet and attend to the grievances of train drivers after the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi met them.”After Mr Gandhi left, officials of the Railway ministry visited us at the New Delhi Railway Station to attend to our grievances,” Singh said.Singh added that it was the first time that any official from the Railway Board showed such a prompt response to their problems.”We shared the same issues with the official which we shared with Mr Gandhi. Long duty hours leading to work stress and no washroom and lunch break while being on train driving duty are some of our problems which we shared with Mr Gandhi and Railway Ministry’s officials,” Singh said.According to Kumaresan, the issues they shared with Mr Gandhi were already known to the Ministry as the loco associations have regularly written to it.
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