Titas staff thrived on evil industry links

Trackback URL

Download PDF

Over 150 supervisors and meter readers of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Ltd became millionaires by tampering with bills, depriving the government of crores of taka in revenue income.

Sources say Titas meter readers, supervisors and some other staff were carrying out the job for a long time in the industrial and commercial zones.

These racketeers used to tamper with the bills for bribes to help unscrupulous owners of mills and industries evade the actual cost of the national asset.

Sources in the Taskforce set up at the Titas Gas building said those involved in metre tampering have several groups and have “under-table” relations with the owners of several mills and industries.

The Taskforce launched a massive drives against the staffs involved in meter tampering and arrested four, including an assistant supervisor, in and around the city.

The arrestees are Mohammad Sadequr Rahman, 38, assistant supervisor, who hailed from Gharmora in Homna, Comilla, Mohammad Shawon Ahmed, 31, of Shibpur village in Matlab, Chandpur, Mohammad Jahangir Alam, 36, of Bashidpur in Laxmipur, and Mohammad Anisur Rahman, 33, of Chahra village under Kotwali police station in Jessore.

Shawon and Jahangir are traders by profession and Anisur is a driver. The Taskforce members seized Tk 200,000 and various equipment used for metre tampering from their possession.

Talking to The Daily Star, all the arrestees admitted to being involved in illegal activities and corruption. They also promised not to do such acts in future.

Sadequr Rahman submitted his wealth statement to the Taskforce mentioning two flats in Mirpur, a piece of land in Demra and some cash money.

But the Taskforce officials said they have traced more of his ill-gotten property.

Shawon said they had been carrying out the illegal job for several years in connivance with some Titas staffs and owners of various industries and companies.

The sources say the Taskforce has launched a massive drive against metre tampering and identified several groups are involved.

Lt Col ATM Hasan Ahmed told The Daily Star: “Those who are involved have a very strong syndicate and various employees and officials of the Titas Gas are related to this illegal process.

“They have strong syndicates in every industrial and commercial zones, and these syndicates deal with the unscrupulous owners of various industries for dodging the real price of gas they use.”

Earlier, the Taskforce discovered astonishing level of corruption by Titas staff and traced among them several hundred billionaires and millionaires.

Leave a Reply