8th pay commission Mumbai official visit: Work conditions, to operations — What’s on agenda for railway dept meetings?
The 8th central pay commission (CPC) is in its consultation stage and has scheduled meetings in Mumbai this week and will hold discussions with employee unions, representatives, groups, pensioner associations, federations, and other stakeholders, before releasing its official recommendations.
Chaired by former Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, the 8th CPC has Pankaj Jain, a former IAS officer as Member-Secretary, and Professor Pulak Ghosh, a tenured Professor of Finance and Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister as Member of the Commission.
8th CPC to visit Mumbai railway depts — What’s on the agenda?
The 8th CPC is likely to visit various railway departments under the Central Railway Zone in Mumbai to gain firsthand experience of employees’ working conditions, as per a PTI report. Two recognised federations — the All India Railwaymen’s Federation and National Federation of Indian Railwaymen, were informed about the visit and provided a list of departments by the Railway Ministry and asked to suggest other crucial areas to be considered, it added.
“It is proposed that the aforementioned visit may be organised with Mumbai (CSMT/Central Railway) as the centre for showcasing the diversity of train operations and maintenance,” the ministry said. On the agenda is observation of track maintenance, signal operations, daily operations, duties and maintenance tasks, control rooms and job risks during its visit.
The Railway Ministry’s statement said the purpose of the 8th CPC visit is to observe the operations critical to the running and maintenance of trains, enable the commission to gain firsthand experience of the intricacies and complexities involved in train operations, enable the commission to gain firsthand experience of the multifarious functions performed by various departments, and enable the commission to gain firsthand experience of the risks and hardships associated with working on railway tracks.
In a letter addressed to general secretaries of the All India Railwaymen’s Federation and the National Federation of Indian Railwaymen, the Railway Board informed them that the 8th CPC:
