4.32 lakh railwaymen vaccinated: Railway Board chairman

'More than 100 vaccination centres are there in the Railways', Sharma said

With railway unions giving ultimatum of June 30 to the government to vaccinate them, Railway Board Chairman Suneet Sharma said on Monday said around 4.32 lakh railwaymen have been vaccinated so far and the Railways is insisting that state governments inoculate the remaining.

"The Railways have so far vaccinated 4.32 lakh employees. We have been in touch with state governments for vaccination for the balance staff. The first stage was 45 years and above and the frontline workers like medical staff and Railway Protection Force (RPF). They have been completed," Sharma told media here.

He also said the railway officials are in touch with the states, firstly, to finish vaccinating the 45 years and above group of people and secondly, to quickly cover our 18-45 age group in different states.

"We are in touch with the states, as the Railways carries essential commodities, we run the Oxygen Expresses and meet the coaching requirements of passengers. We have been insisting on state governments to quickly take action in inoculating our people," Sharma said.

Read | Indian Railways reaches milestone of carrying 10,000 tonnes of O2 on Monday morning

The government's list of frontline workers does not include railway staffers, something that the unions have been complaining about for a long time. The Railways has around 13 lakh employees.

"More than 100 vaccination centres are there in the Railways. We have increased our number of beds. Till last year, we had 2,539 Covid beds, now we have 6,972 beds. We had 253 isolation beds, now we have 573. We have four oxygen plants and 50 others have been sanctioned by divisions and zones," Sharma said.

The Railway Ministry spokesperson also said that the Railways cannot decide who should be designated as frontline workers as it is the decision of a specially formed body within the government.

Currently, the definition of frontline workers include personnel from state and central police organisation, armed forces, home guards, prison staff, disaster management volunteers, civil defence organisation, municipal workers and revenue officials engaged in surveillance and containment activities.

The All India Station Masters' Association has given an ultimatum of June 30 to the government to vaccinate them and other "frontline" railway employees involved in train operations in a letter to the Union Health secretary. It has said that if the government fails to do so, the non-vaccinated staff will have no option other than abstaining from duty.

According to railway unions, almost 2,000 rail employees have lost their lives due to Covid-19 since last year March and around 1,000 are infected daily.