Railway workers carry out an eviction drive in Maligaon. File picture

Oct. 29: The railway employees have rued “unhygienic living condition” at the residential colonies with leaking roofs in and clogged drains near the quarters.

The Maligaon branch of Northeast Frontier Railway Employees’ Union have demanded immediate steps to improve the condition of staff quarters. They have threatened to hit the streets if their demands were not fulfilled.

The secretary of the union’s Maligaon branch, John Das, said lack of maintenance and indifference of the railway authorities have made life difficult for the employees and their families.

Despite repeated requests, the authorities are yet to take the necessary measures to improve the condition of residential colonies, he said.

In the city, the NF Railway has around 5,000 staff quarters spread across different localities, including Maligaon, Pandu, Uzan Bazar, near Guwahati railway station, Silpukhuri and Bamunimaidam.

Das said some of the quarters were quite old and have become dilapidated. No efforts have been made to repair them.

“We suspect that the funds sanctioned for repairing and maintenance of railway quarters are diverted for other purposes. The authorities are concerned only about the officers’ colony and turned a blind eye towards the pathetic condition of the colonies for Grade III and IV employees,” he said.

He said the Maligaon branch of the union had submitted a charter of demands to the chief personnel officer of NF Railway, S. Jha, on October 24 highlighting their problems.

“We had also staged a dharna in front of the NF Railway headquarters at Maligaon on the same day to air our grievances,” Das added.

The demands include repairing of quarters, drains and roads in railway colonies, adequate water supply, uninterrupted power supply, improvement of medical facilities and better hygiene in the colonies.

“The railway staff and their families face inconvenience because of irregular supply of drinking water. We demand water supply twice a day — in the morning and evening — in all the railway colonies in the city,” the secretary said.

Das said another problem faced by the railwaymen is lack of adequate space in the quarters.

“As the railway quarters do not have enough space, some of the occupants had made temporary constructions for their convenience. But the authorities instead of evicting illegal encroachers are busy harassing the staff for such temporary construction,” he added.

The union also demanded that the occupants of railway quarters should be allowed to construct garages to keep their vehicles.

On their demands, a railway officer said under the laid-down rules nobody could make any extension to the quarters and there was nothing much they could do unless the rules were amended.

The officer said the authorities would look into the matter and if their (employees) claims were found to be true then necessary repairs would be carried out.