WB: DYFI Protests Against Removal of 80,000 Indian Railways Vacancies

The Centre is on the way to privatise the Indian railways. The number of vacancies is being done away with. Several leftist student-youth organisations, including the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), staged a protest rally at Fairley Place in Kolkata over these allegations. On Thursday, around 3 pm, thousands of students and youths joined the protests on the streets of Kolkata.

According to the left student and youth organisations, 80,000 vacancies have not been filled in the Indian railways. There have been several reports in the media recently in this regard. Meenakshi Mukherjee, the state secretary of DYFI, has accused the Central government of the abolition of thousands of posts. Complaining against the Centre during the protest rally on this day, she said, “The government is abolishing the vacancy in the railways. Privatising the railways. Railways are the biggest organisation that holds the Indian economy.”

Meenakshi targeted the Centre as well as the State government. "People did not vote for the Centre and the State to sell everything," she claimed. She also claimed that the West Bengal government had recruited 2 lakh contractual workers in the last ten years. “They are spending more money on various sectors, but those who are working are getting a salary of Rs 5-6,000 thousand only,” she said.

Not only Railways, but Mukherjee also spoke out against corruption in teacher recruitment in the state. She said, “Look at the SSC; the High Court is giving one verdict after another. In almost every case, they ordered for CBI investigation. The youth who got the job - whether on merit, bribery or corruption; today, the government is putting those youth on the brink of a social disaster. Even leaving their families behind. The High Court is stamping on this corruption every day. All this has happened for this TMC government.”

In the midst of the protests, Mukherjee also said the government’s main goal was to increase unemployment, non-recruitment and corruption in recruitment. Similarly, now they have cancelled 80,000 posts. The Indian railways must be saved. Vacancies cannot be abolished.'

At the same time, she said, "There has been a global tender recently, in which a private factory of Sweden has been commissioned to manufacture locomotives. However, the country's locomotive factory in Chittaranjan was not given that order.” Meenakshi also questioned the interest of the Modi government in taking this step.

 Apart from Meenakshi Mukherjee, SFI WB State Secretary Srijan Bhattacharjee, DYFI National Secretary Himaghnaraj Bhattacharjee, Tapas Sinha (AIYF), Saikat Giri (AISF), Kaushik Bhaumick (PSU), Sanmay Biswas (YL), Rajib Banerjee (RYF), Safiul Hassan (SB) and Kalatan Dasgupta (DYFI) also spoke in the protest rally.