World News

Western Railway authorities have approached the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) to pay the salary of an additional gatekeeper deployed to man the crossing at Vadsar. The issue will be discussed in the Standing Committee meeting, scheduled to take place on Thursday.

VMC officials informed that the local body pays for the salary of the railway gatekeepers as part of the national policy.

In a letter addressed to VMC Commissioner M K Das, railway authorities said that the civic body had not paid the salary of the additional gatekeeper after he was deployed in 2005.

"Since 1978 the Western Railway has been deploying two gatekeepers at Vadsar railway crossing, which connects Vadsar and Makarpura GIDC Road. However, an additional gatekeeper had to be deployed, considering the heavy traffic flow at the crossing. The VMC passed a resolution to have an additional gatekeeper on February 10, 2005, but his salary was not paid till August 2008," said a VMC official.

VMC Commissioner M K Das said: "As per the letter, we will have to pay Rs 5,87,891 to the Western Railway. The final decision will be taken after a discussion at the Standing Committee meeting."

Sources, however, revealed that the issue was taken up earlier as well, but the authorities failed to arrive at a final decision. "We have written a number of letters to the Western Railway between 2005 and 2009, requesting them not to charge us for the gatekeepers, as they are serving the Western Railway," said an official requesting anonymity.

There are at least three manned crossings, including Vadsar, Lal Baugh and Kalali. "We have to shell out funds for the gate keepers, right from their salary to other miscellaneous expenses, which is not justified," the official added.

Divisional Railway Manager Suhas Kumar said: "It is true that the payment has been held up for some reasons, but we meet every month with the top VMC officials and sort out all such pending issues. Similarly this issue will also be solved in the near future. In any case, it is only a question of few months because the Vadsar crossing will be closed after the construction of the Vadsar Rail Over Bridge gets over."