The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Station masters' strike call: High Court orders notice

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 24, 2007
ePaper

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Station masters' strike call: High Court orders notice

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has ordered notice to respondents on a petition filed by a Chennai resident relating to a call for a strike given by the All India Station Masters Association (AISMA), Madurai Division, on June 2 and 3.

A Division Bench, comprising Justices M. Jeyapaul and P.R. Shivakumar, admitted the petition and ordered notice to respondents returnable by May 29.

In his petition, A.M.K. Thiruvenkatachari of Devaraj Nagar, Saligramam, quoted a Tamil newspaper report that during the strike period the association planned to stop all trains at all stations for two minutes irrespective of whether they had halts there. This would inconvenience passengers.

When a similar agitation was launched by the association nation-wide in 1997and trains stopped at signals for two minutes, EMU trains were set ablaze in Mumbai because of disruption of services. In Southern Railway, the public ransacked more than 20 stations.

Hence, the respondents Union Labour Secretary, Regional Labour Commissioner, Shastri Bhavan, Thomas Varghese, General Manager, Southern Railway, and the Divisional Railway Manager should try to bring about an amicable settlement to avoid the strike.

The petitioner also prayed the court to direct the Labour Ministry authorities to forthwith issue a notification for adjudication of the grievances as contemplated in the Industrial Disputes Act.

The Divisional Secretary, AISMA, Madurai Division, was cited as another respondent.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu