Kamalapur Railway Station
Minister unhappy
In a snap visit to Kamalapur Railway Station, Communications Minister Obaidul Quader, who is temporarily given the additional charge of the railways ministry, listens to the complaints of commuters and expresses his disappointments. Photo: Focus Bangla
On a surprise visit to the capital's Kamalapur Railway Station yesterday, Communications and Railways Minister Obaidul Quader found numerous anomalies and some of the station staff absent from their duties. Walking through the station at around 5:30pm, he found garbage on each and every corner while all the rooms were reeking of stench. Observing a long queue standing still before a ticket counter for quite some time, he found the holdup to be caused by two black market dealers buying tickets inside the counter. The men fled the instant they saw the minister. Finding no personnel in the luggage room, he ordered the suspension of Abdul Aziz, an assistant of luggage booking section, who was on duty at that time. Quader found a woman charging Tk 5 for using the toilet in the waiting room of second class passengers. She claimed the charge was for the water she supplied. He boarded a couple of trains where passengers complained of the poor condition of the toilets. The minister also came to know that grabbers had taken over some 500 acres of the railway's land in and around Kamalapur. Quader called Railways Director General Abu Taher and Secretary Fazle Elahi and asked them to fix the problems within a week or face action. “As long as I am at the ministry, I will not tolerate any negligence or irregularities.” He asked for the toilets to be adequately supplied with water and the station be kept clean. “Find who the grabbers are and recover the land,” he instructed the railway bosses.
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