& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Down to Earth

A ’limited’ profit

By Khalilur Rahman
The black marketeers selling railway tickets earn limited profit. Usually the rate Is fixed at Taka 10 per ticket or little less than this. Even If a ticket is sold at the highest price outside the railway counters. the seller gets the same rate.
Several black marketeers disclosed to The Daily Star correspondent that they have been operating at the Kamalapur Railway Station for quite a long time i under special arrangement’ with a section of the staff.
No outsider is allowed to practice the trade without 'approval'. 'Many of us have different vocations and black marketing of railway tickets Is a part-time Job.' some of them stated.
On special occasions when the rush of passengers is heavy they suspend their normal work and concentrate fully on selling tickets till the volume of traffic drops.
The tickets are not sold always at the station. Many passengers head for the eating houses, 'pan' shops and the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) terminal situated near the Kamalapur Railway Station directly.
A passenger procured three tickets of Inter-city train, 'Upakul' from Dhaka to Noakhali three days before Eid-ul-Azha on June 24 from a wayside vendor 1ft front of Kamalapur Station.
The price of each ticket of 'Shovan' class is Taka 70. But he bought it at Taka 110 per ticket in the black market
The passenger saw that tickets were being sold freely and the sellers were totally unconcerned in presence of railway policemen at the station.
Some of the black marketeers. while talking to the Star correspondent, claimed that they had enough authority to influence the transfer of any ■ obstinate booking clerk refusIng to cooperate with them.
Another passenger who got tickets at their actual price under Influence even after the booking counter announced the stock to be exhausted said after boarding the coach he found that the seats were beside the toilet.
He got down and talked to an official of the station. The official changed his seats to a comfortable place. To his astonishment the passenger later saw that the seats along the lavatory, emitting offensive odour, were allotted to some other persons one of whom said that they booked their tickets much earlier. No doubt the railway official succumbed to pressure by the passenger to change the tickets.
A railway ministry source admitted that railway tickets were being sold in black market when there was heavy rush of passengers on special occasions. But he denied 'deep connection' between the black marketeers and the members of the railway staff.
With regard to the annual loss to the tune of Taka 150 crore sustained by the railways during the last few years a ministry source said that it was not 'proper' to term it as a loss.
The railway authority spends about 98 per cent of its total earning to maintain 51.000 members of its staff. The sanctioned strength of railway staff is 58.000. In addition to the expenditure on account of staff salary and all other allowances, the railway authority has to bear expenses for running hospitals, schools and police personnel for its own purpose, the source added.
He further said that .the government spends a huge sum of money for running hospitals. schools and police force out of Its own fund for the benefit of employees working in various other agencies and departments except railways But the railway Is not getting any money from the government for maintaining these facilities for its staff, the source stated.
Another official of the railway ministry regretted that during the last 20 years of independence of Bangladesh the railway saw no development. Rather, portions of railway tracks and some other establishments in different places have been decaying due to long neglect.
Referring to the setting up of the first railway track up to a length of 53.11 kilometres between Darsana and Jagati section in Kushtia district inaugurated on November 15, 1862, the official said that the then British government had commercial consideration on the top of its mind.
In 1885, 14.98 km line was set up between Dhaka and Narayanganj. This section was opened to traffic on January 4.
During the partition in 1947 the then East Bengal (erstwhile East Pakistan) had 2.603.92 km-long-railway line including 924 km broadgauge and the rest metre gauge.
In 1971. the independent Bangladesh Inherited 2.766 km railway line from the erstwhile Pakistan. Since then no new track could be laid during the last 20 years of Independence.
There was remarkable progress in the road communication during the last 20 years.
The number of vessels In the riverine route has also been Increased considerably. But the railway communication showed no progress.
The existing facility has to be Just tripled by procuring more engines and coaches to meet the demand of an ever-increasing number of passengers and the volume of railway cargo, the source asserted. Otherwise public complaints will remain mostly unattended, he added.