MP Chand stopped railway renovation work after not receiving funds!

BD Digest Reporter:
Rajshahi-6 (Bagha-Charghat) MP and district BNP president Abu Sayeed Chand has been accused of obstructing the renovation work worth Tk 3 crore at Arani Railway Station in Rajshahi. It is learnt that the contractor has been forced to stop work since Saturday on the MP’s orders as the party leaders and activists were not given their ‘share’ of the work. This has raised fears of a disruption in the train schedule for the upcoming Eid.

Contractors Afsar Ali Biswas and Ashraf Uddin jointly got the job of renovating the 630-meter rail track of Line No. 1 of Arani Station of Rajshahi-Pakshi section of the Western Railway. The work started on April 27. Ashraf Uddin, the owner of the contractor company ‘Biswas Construction’, alleged that since the work started, some leaders of the local BNP and Jubo Dal had been demanding a share of the work from site manager Dablu. They pressured him to supply sleepers and stones themselves, which the contractor had already bought.

Contractor Ashraf Uddin said that on Friday night, Abu Sayeed Chand got down at Arani station at around 12:45 am on his way to Dhaka by train. There, he called site manager Dablu and directly ordered him to stop work. According to the contractor, the MP said, “Work will stop from now on. I told you so. I will start work after I tell you.”

The contractor also said, “The MP has asked to stop the work. Whose head is it? So I asked the manager to stop the work.”

When contacted, MP Abu Sayeed Chand denied all the allegations. He said, “I did not give any order to stop the work. I only said that the work should be of high quality and there should be no irregularities. I heard that the work has resumed from today (Saturday) afternoon.”

The MP’s personal assistant, Jalal Uddin, said that the MP did say that he would give opportunities to local boys in big jobs, but he did not remember asking them to stop working.

Meanwhile, the Western Railway authorities have expressed deep concern over the halt in work. Railway General Manager (GM) Farid Ahmed said, “The removal of the railway line before Eid is a big problem. It can disrupt the train schedule. We are trying to find a solution quickly.”

Train services are currently disrupted on Line 1 of Arani Station due to the closure of renovation works. If the problem is not resolved quickly, there is a risk that the suffering of homebound passengers will increase several times.