The parcel office on platform No. 1 of Tatanagar station on Wednesday. Picture by Animesh Sengupta
A surprise check on Tata-Howrah Superfast Steel Express at Tatanagar on Tuesday night unearthed a racket of illegal transport of luggage on passenger trains.
The inspection, carried out by the commercial department of Chakradharpur railway division, started at the railway siding after the Steel Express chugged in at Tatanagar station at 9.30pm on Tuesday and stretched on till 1.30am on Wednesday.
After prolonged searches and verifications, the officials, led by senior divisional commercial manager (DCM) Ashok Agrawal, found the luggage van overloaded with unbooked parcels. The anomaly came to the fore after serious discrepancies were noted between the luggage booking list and the goods lying at the van.
Agrawal immediately summoned parcel supervisor, Tatanagar, R.R. Yadav and demanded an explanation. He also recommended Yadav's suspension besides slapping a penalty Rs 75,000 on those whose luggage were found lying unauthorised in the van.
According to the team members, the supervisor knew about illegal loading of parcels in the luggage van, but chose to overlook it.
Confirming the raid and the consequent revelation, Agrawal told The Telegraph: 'We have recommended suspension of the parcel supervisor after detection of a racket in the Steel Express' luggage van in the wee hours today (Wednesday). There were 1.04 tonnes of excess luggage. Space for these parcels had not been pre-booked and they were being carried illegally.'
The senior DCM further said they carried out the inspection on the basis of information that a racket of carrying goods illegally was continuing unabated on various trains in connivance with officials, thus causing huge revenue losses to the railways.
This apart, the station premises was also getting unnecessarily congested as the unauthorised parcels remain strewn on the platform, causing inconvenience to passengers.
The discovery created quite a stir. 'This was the first such surprise inspection by the commercial department at Tatanagar. We had never thought that Chakradharpur division would act to unravel the racket,' said an official.
