Railway Land Grabbing
Submit report to me: Quader
Communications and Railways Minister Obaidul Quader yesterday directed officials of Bangladesh Railway (BR) East Zone to prepare an updated report regarding grabbed railway land in the zone immediately and send it to him.
“It is ironic that Chittagong zone has become the depot of plunder,” he said during a meeting with the BR East Zone officials at the conference room of Central Railway Building (CRB) in the port city.
The minister reached Chittagong Railway Station at 2:50pm yesterday from Dhaka for a daylong visit.
Activists of Bangladesh Railway Sramik League crowded the station to receive the minister creating chaos. At one stage they broke down the glass door of the station in their eagerness to come out together with Obaidul Quader.
Addressing the railway officials, the minister said, “You cannot hide the sky with your palm. The truth will be revealed. I know what has been going on in Chittagong zone. Dirt has been layered thick here for years.”
Terming a section of railway officials “ill circle”, he said they have become rich through railway land grabbing and pilfering properties of railway through irregularities and misdeeds.
He said stern action would be taken against them and zero tolerance shown to all sorts of misdeeds.
Quader directed Tofazzal Hossain, the newly appointed general manager of BR East Zone, to prepare the report on railway land grabbing.
Around 5,500 acres of railway land has been grabbed so far, he said. Because of illegal slums on both sides of the rail line, the speed of Chittagong bound trains form Dhaka has declined, he said.
Fazle Kabir, railways secretary, Mohammad Shahjahan, additional director general (operation) and Md Khalilur Rahman, additional director general (rolling stock), accompanied the minister.
Earlier, the minister visited Locoshed in Pahartali area and warned their staff about pilfering fuel.Quader also visited Jhautala Wareless Colony and Akbar Shah Mazar areas under Pahartali in the city to see the grabbed railway lands.
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