Illegal railway scrap trade: Four culprits identified

Reported by Santosh Jagdev

Bhubaneswar, Mar 9:

The Vigilance department of the Railways which is probing the illegal sale of scraps from the East Coast Railways carriage workshop at Mancheswar here said on Sunday that in the course of inquiry they have found four persons involved in the scam and that action will be taken against them after due process.

Acting on a tip-off, Railways Vigilance sleuths on Tuesday caught four persons red-handed while they were trying to supply GI pipes, ply pieces, 8mm rods, iron angles and other scraps in a truck.

Some persons, who are reportedly Grade-IV railway employees, were trying to help the vehicles loaded with scraps get exit permission through workshop gate during the’free hours’, in defiance of all rules and regulations, Government Railways Police (GRP) sources said.

How this illegal activity had been happening inspite of the presence of a team of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) led by an inspector is something that the railways authorities need to explain, GRP sources said.

Reliable sources in the Railway Vigilance said they were interrogating a few RPF officials involved in the matter. They have also interrogated the driver of the truck used for the supply of scraps, the sources said.

“We will submit the probe report within a couple of days and then the authorities of the Railways will take action against the culprits,” said an officer of the Railway Vigilance department .