Moshiur Rahman Selim, Comilla South

Major railway stations across Comilla—including Laksam, Nauti, Nangalkot, Manoharganj’s Khila, Natherpetua, Bipulsagar, and the historic Laksam Railway Junction—are facing severe environmental and security degradation due to alleged irregularities, mismanagement, corruption, and criminal activities by a section of duty-bound railway officials and staff.

According to multiple local railway sources, despite development initiatives over the past years that expanded the junction areas, the current scenario presents a grim picture. For years, environmental hazards such as untreated train smoke, human waste, and garbage have plagued the stations. Meanwhile, the region has allegedly fallen under the grip of criminal syndicates operating with tokens and extortion, involving GRP police, Ansar, and security personnel alongside rogue railway employees.

Open smuggling, narcotics trafficking, pickpocketing, floating prostitution, mugging, hooliganism by local gangs, platform hawking, and ticket black marketing have put public life at serious risk, sources said.

Insiders reveal that a local nexus provides direct and indirect support to these criminal rings across all regional stations and the Laksam Junction. Although the Security Department for railway property protection, GRP police for law enforcement, GRP and security havildars for platform control, and various departmental offices are tasked with managing the junction, alleged negligence and corruption among officials have cost the government substantial annual revenue.

Activities such as fuel and asset pilferage from the railway locomotive shed, corruption in parcel and booking offices, leasing out government land and ponds at nominal rates for unauthorized markets, and timber or sleeper smuggling have turned railway colonies into safe havens for criminals. Furthermore, illegal land grabbing along the Akhaura-Laksam-Chittagong, Laksam-Noakhali, and Laksam-Chandpur railway tracks, coupled with makeshift bazaars set up directly on the tracks, continues under the cover of trade union politics and monthly extortion tokens collected by security personnel.

While East Zone railway authorities occasionally conduct anti-corruption drives, conditions quickly revert to normalcy, sources noted. Investigations into files from the past 15 years could unearth deep-seated corruption across departmental offices. In railway colonies, abandoned quarters are allegedly rented out illegally with unauthorized utility connections, and commercial structures built on grabbed railway land contribute to revenue evasion while fostering inter-district criminal activities.

When contacted regarding these allegations, several implicated railway officials declined to comment, instead directing inquiries to senior officials of the East Zone railway administration.