Mamata's campaign manager had a ticket to easy money, she didn't stop him

Mamata's campaign manager had a ticket to easy money, she didn't stop him
BHAVNA VIJ

NEW DELHI, APRIL 2: Mamata Banerjee may have huffed and puffed out of the Railway Ministry, but the skeletons simply don't stop clattering out after her. An internal vigilance inquiry has revealed that though Banerjee knew that her Assistant Personal Secretary (APS) Dr Alok Das was hand-in-glove with touts, she took no action against Das, a homeopathic doctor and one of her campaign managers for the Assembly elections.

The inquiry found that Das was releasing berths from the minister's special quota at a premium in connivance with touts. According to sources, Das released 50-100 confirmed berths everyday from the minister's office for over seven months before his cover was blown.

``Each ticket was sold at a premium of Rs 100 to Rs 200. Between Das and the touts, they were making as much as Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 everyday,'' sources disclosed. Though Banerjee was told about the inquiry, she reportedly decided against any action.

All Banerjee did was to issue instructions that no reservation requisition slip would be sent directly from her residence to the reservation cell. All requests were forwarded to Tapan Roy, her APS at Rail Bhawan.

Das functioned out of Banerjee's residential office at D-4, MS Flats, Gurdwara Rakabgang Road. When she left for Kolkata after quitting the NDA and her ministry, Das went along. When contacted by The Indian Express at Kolkata, Das said he did not know about any inquiry against him.

``We used to get hundreds of requests for reservations everyday and maintained a proper record. All requisition slips were forwarded to Tapan Roy at Rail Bhawan where the quota was released,'' said Das. He refused to comment on the system before that.

Roy said as soon as it was brought to Banerjee's notice that there was ``some problem'' in the reservation quota, she stopped Das from sending requests directly. ``I don't think Das knew that the requests were coming from a tout,'' Roy stated.

However, vigilance officials have found otherwise: that the records maintained by Das did not match with the actual number of berths released under his name. ``The OSD cannot doubt the requests coming from the minister's residence. The requisition states that the MR (minister of railways) desires that a particular ticket be confirmed, and it's done unquestioningly,'' explained an official.

The inquiry was started when several requisition slips signed by Das were recovered from a tout picked up by vigilance personnel. Inquiries revealed that the tout bought unconfirmed tickets for popular trains during peak season and take them to Das for confirmation. Das would get confirmed berths from the minister's quota and share the premium amount with the tout. He got between Rs 100 and Rs 200 for each ticket, depending upon the rush and demand.

Officials in the railway ministry were tight-lipped over the inquiry. Northern Railway's Senior Deputy General Manager (heading the vigilance) I.P.S. Anand said he did not remember if there had been such an inquiry. Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) Chandralekha Mukherjee said vigilance inquiries are supposed to be confidential and never made public.