Arafat Khader: Contractor’s bill are not passed without commission, loss of 36 crores of APP, complaint against a railway engineer and former GM.

Allegations of loss of Tk 36 crore of APP in one financial year have been made in CME office of Railway Eastern Zone. The concerned contractors have raised this complaint against Tapas Kumar Das, chief mechanical engineer of the department and Jahangir Alam, the recently retired General Manager (GM) of the Eastern Railway.
The contractors complained that in the last fiscal year 2022-23, the Mechanical Engineering Department of Railway Eastern Region received an allocation of Tk 50 crore under APP. 14 crores of the allocated parts were purchased through the main equipment purchase department of the railways, but the remaining 36 crores were misappropriated through various manipulations.
Another official of the office, on condition of anonymity, said that such irregularities are usually not possible for one person. This involves the contractor, APP implementation committee and above all the officials of the concerned department.
The contractors have accused the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Eastern Railway Region of various irregularities. The contractors complained that Chief Mechanical Engineer Tapas Kumar Das did not release any purchase file without a hefty commission. He signed the file by collecting 5 to 10 percent commission depending on the type of file. Otherwise they harass the contractors by withholding files and wasting time.
Chief Mechanical Engineer Tapas Kumar Das could not be reached after repeated calls to inquire about these allegations. Later, when the reporter himself went to the office on the fourth floor of Railway eastzone Building in Chittagong, he refused to talk to the reporter even from the top