Rail Min Announces to Cancel the Notification regarding Allowances

Railway Minister Nurul Islam Sujon has announced to withdraw the notification of the Ministry of Finance regarding the cancellation of allowance of Bangladesh Railway Running Staff. After that, the railway workers called off the train strike all over the country.

The minister made the announcement after holding a discussion with the railway running staff at Kamalapur railway station on Wednesday (April 13) at 12 noon.

Bangladesh Railway Running Staff called for a nationwide strike today without prior announcement as the issue of salary and mileage has not been resolved. As a result, trains did not run anywhere in the country from 8 am to 12 noon today.

In this situation, the Railway Minister sat in a meeting with the agitating railway workers at the restroom of Kamalapur station at around 11 pm. Announcing the fulfillment of the demand after the meeting, he said at around 12 noon, "We agree with the demand of the running staff of the railway. We have written to the Ministry of Finance to realize their demand. However, on April 10, the Division of Finance again disagreed with the proposal to provide 'running allowance' pension and gratuity benefits to the running staff of the railways as there is no opportunity to add any allowance to the basic pay in the case of pension and gratuity of civil servants. The running staff has gone on strike following the announcement of the finance ministry. Talks have been held with the Ministry of Finance about the stalemate in the railways. They have announced the withdrawal of this official order."

He said, "I am announcing in front of everyone today that I am canceling the notification for which the running staff have started a movement. The notification issued on April 10 was canceled. And we will discuss how the allowance is added to the pension, hopefully, it will be a solution."

The minister said a meeting is scheduled with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on April 19 on the railway issue. Hopefully, he will cooperate in solving the problems of railways. Therefore, he urged the drivers to keep the train movement normal from now on.

He said that the passengers were suffering due to the non-availability of trains during the holy month of Ramadan. So the government has a good eye on this sector. Punitive action will not be taken against those who called the strike today.

Meanwhile, Saidur Rahman, joint general secretary of Railway Running Staff (Driver-Guard) and Workers-Employees Association urged the drivers to keep the train running normally.

Meanwhile, within half an hour of the announcement of the Railway Minister, the Ministry of Finance has issued a new notification withdrawing the order canceling the pension and gratuity benefits by adding the running allowance to the basic salary of the running staff.