Contaminated oil causes massive damage to locomotives: PAC told

One of major causes of damage to locomotives is use of contaminated oil. This was disclosed in a joint meeting of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of National Assembly on Railways and Monitoring and Implementation Committee on Railways, presided over by MNAs Yasmeen Rehman and Sardar Ayyaz Sadiq at Railway Headquarters, here on Saturday.
In a briefing after the meeting, Sardar Ayyaz Sadiq, Chairman PAC told the media that five issues were discussed in the meeting and directions were issued to the officers concerned. He said that a two-member committee, which is probing the issue of contaminated oil in locomotives, told a meeting of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly that 198 locomotives were damaged due to the usage of used oil and cost of one locomotive is more that three million to four million. He said the committee had directed PR administration to fix responsibility of the loss and present a comprehensive report in the next meeting.
He said that another issue, which was discussed in the meeting was theft of radiators and a team of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told the meeting that two radiators had been traced in Peshawar and the accused would soon be arrested. He said that the FIA was directed to submit a detailed report after one month on the theft of radiators. Sadiq said that theft of diesel was also discussed and Railway Police informed the committees that it had traced almost all accused and they would soon be arrested.
Discussing the constitution of Railway Board, he said that all decisions that were taken by the PR Executive Committee were illegal and several cases were pending due to the unavailability of the board, adding that law ministry was directed to take up the case. To a question, he said that National Accountability Bureau was working but cases were not registering due to the vacant post of its chairman.
Regarding illegal allotment of 460 plots to 180 Railway Officers, Yasmeen Rehman told the media that a committee was formed to probe the issue, which told the meeting that only 100 officers responded to it but the committee was not satisfied with their answers. She said that plots had been sold to other people and it was directed to the committee to decide what rate should be fixed and how to recover the price of the plots from owners. Officers of SNGPL and NAB also attended the meeting. Nadeem Afzal Chan, MNA, Begum Shahnawaz Sheikh, MNA, Mrs Asiya Nasir MNA, Javaid Iqbal, Chairman PR, Saeed Akhtar, PR General Manager (Operations), Ibne Hussain, PR Police Inspector General, were also present.