Better Give This Porter Whatever He Asks

If Ulfa commander-in-chief Paresh Barua ever surrenders and returns to India, he’d find his old job in the Indian Railways waiting for him.

If Ulfa commander-in-chief Paresh Barua ever surrenders and returns to India, he’d find his old job in the Indian Railways waiting for him. Barua, recruited through the sports quota at Tinsukia in Assam in 1978 (he was a good footballer), floated the Ulfa in April 1979 and has never reported for duty since. But no officer could ever muster courage to sack one of India’s most wanted fugitive. Barua therefore remains ‘railway traffic porter’ (Employee No 04088554) with a salary of Rs 6,630 a month. Salary slips in his name are still being issued, though the number of days present and money disbursed are both marked ‘zero’.

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Jaideep Mazumdar