TIRUCHY: A railway employee working at the Golden Rock Workshop has been served a notice for distributing black flags among his colleagues to denounce the Pulwama terrorist attack that killed 40 CRPF jawans.
A source said the employee, named B Jai Jawan, distributed the flags during the tea break on March 2.
“Every day, several politicians and people are condemning the incident on various platforms. So he decided to do something to express his patriotic feelings. He also told the senior section engineer (SSE) that it was a gesture to condemn the incident,” said the source.
The official notice, issued by the SSE on the same day, highlighted that Jawan distributed black flags among the employees without his knowledge and had not followed protocol. The SSE admitted that he came to know that it was an act of protest against the Pulwama attack.
“When asked about this, he said he had done so in order to show a protest for the martyrs of the Pulwama attack. He has not followed the basic protocol of informing the in-charge of the administration of the machine shop to seek permission. This kind of activity hampers industrial peace among staff and the administration,” the notice said.
The SSE expressed displeasure over the employee’s act and warned disciplinary action would be taken if it was repeated in the future.
However, a union official expressed displeasure over the development. “It is unclear how a simple patriotic gesture affects the industrial peace among staff and the administration of the workshop. Ironically, this workshop under Southern Railway had seen similar activities on various other occasions,” he said.
When contacted, a workshop official said, “The notice was issued by one of the SSEs in his individual capacity. There are many SSEs this workshop. I came to know about the notice only later. We will look into this issue when the workshop opens on Monday.”