Protest sends Rail services out of gear
Guwahati: A long and unusual protest march resorted to by over 200 Special Police Officers (SPOs) in Assam along the railway track from Maibong in Dima Hasao hill district to Guwahati demanding fulfillment of their various demands sent railway services totally out of gear on Saturday.
An Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) spokesman informed that because of the protest march resorted to by SPOs eight long distance trains had remain stranded at various stations along the route for hours while five long-distance trains were partially cancelled. So far, five trains had to be cancelled by the railway authorities.
The SPOs have resorted to this unusual form of protest demanding withdrawal of the decision of the state government to cut down on their monthly salary amount besides fulfillment of their various other demands.
Meanwhile, in an attempt to pacify the agitating SPOs, chief minister Tarun Gogoi announced that there would be no cut on SPOs’ monthly salary and they would be paid according to their original consolidated monthly salary of Rs 9000. Gogoi also announced that he had already instructed the DG of the Assam Police and state chief secretary to initiate discussion with the SPOs to resolve their grievances.
Over 300 ex-servicemen and home guards were appointed as SPOS by Assam government basically to improve the deployment of police personnel in insurgency-affected hill districts of Dima Hasao and Karbi Anglong where several Central sector infrastructure projects including a mega Railway gauge conversion project and construction of East-West corridor stretch have been hampered because of insurgency.