Chandpur railway is losing revenues after its Chandpur-Chittagong route’s Sagorika express train was privatised while its Meghna express train is not getting enough passengers.
Thus the railway authority is failing to pay its pensioners on due time. Many of the senior citizens under their pension scheme are having to return empty handed after waiting long hours.
According to authorities of Chandpur main station, the railway used to make Tk3 lakh per month from the Sagorika express. However, after privatisation the railway is not getting the revenues of Sagorika express. On the other hand, the Meghna express, which used to bring in about Tk20 lakh per month, is seeing a decrease in passengers for the last two months. Monthly revenue from the train has gone down to about Tk15 lakh. Thus, in total the Chandpur main station is now making only about Tk15 lakh in place of Tk22-25 lakh per month.
The station master said there are currently 500 pensioners who need to be paid Tk20 lakh in total per month. Until yesterday, only 300 of them were paid for the month of April.
A pensioner’s widow Hasina Begum of Shahrasti area said: “I have to collect the pension every month since my husband passed away. My household depends on this money and I am facing extreme difficulty for not getting the pension money on time for the last two months.”
Shahanara Begum, a pensioner from Hajiganj, said her whole day gets wasted when she comes to collect the pension money. “Last month I had to come twice to collect the pension money.”
Hosne Ara Begum from Matlab said: “Walking around is very difficult for me. When I do not get the pension money after going all the way to office, it really hurts. The officers are unable to pay us even after giving assurances. We are going through a lot of hassle maintaining our household expenses.”
Station Master Mohammad Hossain Majumder of the Chandpur main station told the Dhaka Tribune: “After the Sagorika express was privatised, I sent a letter to the chief commercial manager in Chittagong to resolve the financial crisis. But I did not hear back from him, and so I sent a letter to all the higher officials last month regarding the matter. Now I am waiting for a reply.”
Such a financial crisis also arose during the transport blockade at the beginning of this year and during the post-election violence last year, and the pensioners had to bear the brunt.
