Atul Kumar – Whistleblower exposes Rs. 5000 crore Railways scam

Atul Kumar – Whistleblower exposes Rs. 5000 crore Railways scam



Atul Kumar, an Indian Railway Store Service officer, wrote a letter to Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee in March, detailing the corruption method because of which Indian Railways suffer loss RS. 5000 crore rupees each year.

Surprisingly, Kumar's letter has never been acknowledged, neither by Mamata nor by the Railway Board.



Railways buys from the pre approved vendors.
After becoming approved vendors , these vendors form a business ring and thus raise the prices of all the items which railways buys from them.

The Railway officers also know the prices are more but as they are paid their share, they keep silence on this topic and using loopholes in the law they see that the everything becomes lawful.
The Railways cut out competition by making specifications match a particular brand and which help the vendors who pay them money or gifts.

In the case of fragrance dispensers installed in AC-2 tier coaches and toilets in 2005, the Railways Research Design & Standards Organisation (RDSO) told the management to install a specific brand of odour control systems in trains.
The brands were Auto Janitor and Microburst produced by a UK-based company.
Three Mumbai-based suppliers - Dinesh Kumar & Company, SR Electronics and Jade International- were named by sources

In 2007, Jade imported the dispensers for R 415 each and sold them to Railways for Rs. 4600 a piece - more than ten times the cost.

Dispenser refills were imported for R 226 and sold to the Railways for R 1300 each - at five times the cost

In 2007, these pads cost Rs 300 each.
But specifications were changed to suit the concerns of pocket bearers.
In September and December 2008, the prices were flared up to Rs 4160 which is
14 times the original.

As per Atul Kumar, the whistleblower in this case, each year the Railways buys goods worth R 17,000 crore in which overpricing is by about 30 per cent or a whopping Rs. 5000 crore that goes from the Indian tax payers money.

CWG is a much smaller and one time scam. Scam in railway procurement is much bigger and perennial," said Atul Kumar

Atul Kumar has degrees from the Delhi College of Engineering, IIT (Madras), and IIM (Kolkata), and has worked as Material Managers in South-Eastern, Northern, Central, Western, Eastern, East-Coast and Southern Railways, as well as at Chittaranjan Locomotive Works and Integral Coach Factory (Chennai). Mr. Kumar is presently awaiting transfer from his recently held post of Controller of Stores Metro Railways (Kolkata).

Regarding Railway corruption reports say that in last decade Railways corruption that has blown an estimated Rs 50,000 crore hole in the public exchequer, our Indian tax payers money.

My congratulations to the whistleblower, Mr. Atul Kumar, for his honesty and integrity
Real Hero of India.

Corruption is Our Religion

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Sunday, September 12, 2010