Politician-Titas nexus minting money from illegal gas links

An investigation by the law enforcing agency found an influential group of consumers, local political leaders and an unscrupulous section of officials and employees of the State-owned Titas Gas transmission and Distribution Company are complicit in providing illegal gas connections in Narayanganj.
"The contractors in this area are puppets of the local leaders. They have no rights to dig one inch of the land in Narayanganj without taking permission from the local leaders. The contractors have to sit with these influential groups time and again to negotiate any deal for residential or industrial gas connections. This has been happening for the last two decade," the report said.
Rupganj, Siddhirganj, Bordi,   Sonargaon, Bandar or Narayanganj City areas are the group's preserve. The consumers, either business people, or housewives meet these leaders to get industrial or domestic gas connections. This practice has been going for a long time ignoring the Titas Zonal office, it said.
"We are about to begin a drive to snap illegal connections in Narayanganj. We are going to disconnect all illegal lines by the next two months," Managing Director of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ali Mohammad Al Mamun told journalists.
He said Titas cannot succeed in the drive without the cooperation of the local MPs, political leaders and the media.
Titas gas authority has formed a probe body to investigate the Narayanganj mosque fire incident, the date of submitting of the report of this body was deferred twice.
However, the team said it would not reveal any details about the incident until its investigation had been completed. According to Titas, 'they are still digging the whole issues.'
Initially the investigating team found six leakages in the pipeline of Titas Gas beneath Baitul Salat Jame Mosque located in Narayanganj Sadar upazila where an explosion occurred. According to Titas authority, the government has stopped giving gas connection since July 13 in 2010 but it laid 179 km pipeline at Narayanganj in the last 10 years.
"About 2 lakh consumers would get new connections from this line, and the leaders-officials-employees-contractors are getting thousand of crore of taka from these underhand dealings," a senior official said.