KARACHI, June 22: The Railway Workers Federation (RWF), criticising the contract for coolies (porters or loaders) given by the Pakistan Railways for over Rs6 million, has demanded that the old system be restored.

The union chief Manzoor Razi on Sunday, terming the new system exploitative, said the contractor would now have to charge the coolies more money to pay the contract amount to the railways.

He said that earlier, in the British era, the railways used to pay thousands of rupees to the contractor to arrange for the coolies and also load and unload its cargo.

He said that under the earlier system since the contractor did not have to pay any amount to the railways he usually did not charge the coolies more for giving them the license or for monthly or daily charges.

He said the new system of taking money from the contractors had been introduced only recently; last year the contract was given for nearly Rs5 million, while this year the contract had been given for over Rs6 million.

He said the coolies would now have to charge more money from passengers so that they could earn enough and were able to pay the contractor his charges. He demanded the old system be revived so that the poor coolies and passengers were not exploited.